Soviet nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk

During a poetry reading on republican television on February 26, Suleimenov took his opportunity on air to inform the broader public about the accident.

He concluded his statement by inviting those interested in stopping nuclear tests to the Union Hall of Writers in Alma-Ata for a meeting on February 28.

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.

The Test Site was designed to operate in absolute secrecy and was administered by the Soviet military. Information about atomic explosions and radiation levels in the Semipalatinsk Oblast were withheld by Soviet authorities.

The topic was addressed by Nursultan Nazarbayev, who then held the position of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Opening his speech, Nazarbayev criticized the secrecy behind the nuclear tests and argued that the public should be properly informed about the negative effects of radiation.

Nazarbayev also applauded NSM for raising awareness about radioactive pollution in the Semipalatinsk Oblast.

Yet, in Nazarbayev’s opinion, the military could not be blamed.

Supporting the Soviet military’s outlook, he noted that nuclear testing had not been suspended in the US and that the Test Site personnel were merely adhering to their mission to defend the Soviet Union from external threats.

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

In all, the Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk (340 underground and 116 aboveground), starting with that first one in August 1949 and ending with the final test on October 19, 1989.

The Soviet military and scientific personnel conducting the test knew that the rain and wind would make the local population more susceptible to radioactive fallout.

At the very least, a majority of the 220,000 affected people were exposed to an estimated dose of between 7 millisieverts and 350 millisieverts, and about 37,200 residents were exposed to radiation doses between 350 and 990 millisieverts during the period of atmospheric testing.

In one village, which was engulfed by a radioactive cloud after that first nuclear test in August 1949, 90 percent of its inhabitants received an external effective dose of up to 1,400 millisieverts during the first year alone.

the rate of cancer in those living in eastern Kazakhstan, the area most exposed to radiation, remains 25-30 percent higher than elsewhere in the country

The actual extent of damage inflicted by nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk continues to be the subject of much research and debate.

One morning when I was a small girl, my father awoke to find all of his hair had fallen off onto his pillow overnight

my father’s hair loss was likely caused by radiation exposure while he labored outside as a railway worker near the test site

During the first decades of testing, the Soviet military built a secret research and administrative center 60 kilometers away from the testing grounds–a new town that the outside world would come to know only as Semipalatinsk-21.

Natalya Zhdanova, who lived in Kurchatov from 1968 to 2000, remembers that announcements about the tests were broadcast on the local radio stations, along with movie show times and weather forecasts.

As a member of a military family whose relatives were involved in the testing, she never worried about how the tests might impact her or her family’s health.

People were not afraid of radiation–maybe because nobody was suffering from leukemia or other diseases.

In 1957, the military built the Anti-Brucellosis Dispensary No. 4, purportedly to monitor tuberculosis infections in the area. In reality, though, the facility was built to secretly observe the impacts of radiation exposure from nuclear testing on local people.

Today, bitterly, locals note that they were nothing more than “guinea pigs” in a grandiose experiment.

between 1957 and 1960 Kazakh doctors were allowed to undertake a clinical examination of those living near the site.

the doctors dispatched by the Soviet military blamed environmental factors and poverty for the poor health of local residents

the Kazakh doctors found a direct correlation between illness and radiation exposure, according to Dr. Bahiya Atchabarov who led the study and was interviewed years later in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

In particular, the Kazakh team recorded hemorrhaging of respiratory tracts, mouths, genitals, and changes in mucous and skin of those living in the area surrounding the test site.

Eventually, the team was forced by Soviet authorities to stop their clinical studies.

The study’s findings filled 12 volumes of classified documents. Only after the Soviet collapse did this research become available to the general public.

The joint team’s official conclusions included records of altered blood chemistry, weaker immune systems, and higher levels of infant mortality.

The report, however, still ignored radiation exposure as the main cause of these maladies, focusing instead on industrial pollution and poor quality water, air, and health care.

The Cold War arms race fueled this sentiment.

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.

February 20, 1989 the first secretary of the Semipalatinsk regional party committee K.B. Boztaev in cryptograms addressed to the CPSU Central Committee with a request to suspend or sharply reduce the frequency and power of the explosions.

According to the project, the four times reduction of the number of nuclear tests at the site, and starting with January 1993 the termination of the tests at the site were provided.

The Soviet leaders chose a site in the Semipalatinsk region of the Central Asian republic to test its first atomic bomb.

Local people were kept in the dark about the site’s use.

A radioactive cloud blanketed the nearby settlements within hours before drifting far from the epicenter.

Women suffered through miscarriages, complicated pregnancies, and stillbirths. Babies were born with missing limbs, Down syndrome, and other disabilities linked to radiation exposure.

Studies conducted by Kazakhstan’s Institute of Radiation Medicine and Ecology concluded that people exposed to ionizing radiation during the period of Soviet nuclear tests faced significantly higher general and cancer-related mortality risks.

The military denied the tests were harmful to the local population.

Doctors were not allowed to diagnose cancers.

For over four decades, Soviet authorities conducted 468 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk site.

More than 1.3 million people in Kazakhstan were exposed to radioactive fallout during these atmospheric and underground tests

At the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, at least 456 nuclear tests were carried out, from which more than one and a half million people suffered.

Taking into account that the Kazakh SSR has fulfilled its duty on creating nuclear potential thus ensuring parity among the USSR and the U.S., and in deference to social demands, I decree: To close the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site

Years ago during the testing, my parents bore witness to those bright and vast mushroom clouds as they filled the sky. When I was born, I was born without arms, and it was a shock to my mother.

The people who lived in Semipalatinsk at the time came out of their homes during the explosions to watch them

They didn’t even know about the health threats and devastating consequences of the crimes being committed against them. People were basically treated as guinea pigs.

My main mission on this land is to do everything I can for people like me to be the last victims of nuclear tests

Kuyukov attributes his disabilities to the high levels of radiation his parents were exposed to.