Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement

In February 1989, thousands gathered in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan at the time, to hear the Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov condemn nuclear testing and announce the creation of the anti-nuclear organization Nevada-Semipalatinsk.

Days later, two million people signed a petition to close the testing site. President Nazarbayev supported the effort and officially signed the decree to close the site forever on August 29, 1991, exactly 42 years after the first nuclear explosion took place there.

Days later, two million people signed a petition to close the testing site.

A rally of the society took place in Alma-Ata, where it was decided to establish the anti-nuclear movement, chaired by O. Suleimenov.

In November 1989, the session of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR appealed to the people's deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR demanding the immediate cessation of nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site.

In his speeches Nursultan Nazarbayev has always emphasized that the closure of the Semipalatinst Nuclear Test Site is the fulfillment of the will of Kazakhstani people.

In February 1989, a radioactive gas leak at the Semipalatinsk Test Site spurred

In late March, the NSM was invited by the Soviet military to the Semipalatinsk Test Site to view a detonation of a nuclear weapon and to make their own measurements of radiation levels.

According to the reporter, no abnormal radiation levels were detected by both readings.

The author deflected blame for the pollution away from the Soviet military. Environmental degradation, they insisted, was due to mismanagement by officials in charge of heavy industry in the city.

Suleimenov’s choice to name his new organization Nevada was an expression of solidarity with the American anti-nuclear movement.

This chapter begins in August 1989 with a rally held by the NSM in the village of Karaul.