The Republic of Kazakhstan, once a republic of the Soviet Union (USSR), was a primary venue for Soviet nuclear weapon testing from 1949 until 1989.See Soviet nuclear testing in 1989. All final nuclear tests were in Semipalatinsk-21 in 1989. Thereafter, all Soviet weapons tests were conducted in Russia in 1990; one active nuclear warhead was left behind in an abandoned shaft in Kazakhstan in 1990. Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Kazakhstan became the fourth-largest nuclear power (following Ukraine) in the world and hosted a considerably large weapon support infrastructure due to its reliance on the Soviet nuclear program as a means to develop its own local economy. Besides the nuclear program, Kazakhstan was also a prominent site of Soviet programs of biological (only Biopreparat outside of Russia) and chemical weapons.
The former Soviet Union conducted substantial, large scale nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk-21, whose radiological impact on the environment has resulted in numerous health issues for the population. The Nevada Semipalatinsk movement helped report the cancer-related issues which are examined through the inhabitants living and exposed to villages around Semipalatinsk.
Kazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union, doing so on 16 December 1991. Due to concerns of the spread of cancer to its population, it engaged in rapid denuclearization with help from the United States. Over the years, Kazakhstan has cooperated with Russia in returning all 1,400 active nuclear warheads, and took on a leading role in declaring the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. In 2017, Kazakhstan voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and ratified it in 2021.
Origins Nuclear testing venue
On 21 August 1947, the Soviet government established a town, (Kurchatov), in the north-eastern part of the Soviet-managed Kazakhstan to support the Semipalatinsk-21 site as the primary testing venue for Soviet program of nuclear weapons— the first Soviet device, RDS-1,Codenames are vary. It was codenamed by Kurchatov as RDS-1 while others named "Pervaya Molniya" or "First Lighting". The Americans codenamed it Joe-1 was carried out on 29 August 1949. The Kurchatov is situated in the east of Semipalatinsk (now Semey), a region that once conveyed a sacred cultural meaning to local Kazakhstanis with its production of many Kazakhstani writers and musicians. The Semipalatinsk-21 (in Russian: Полигон, lit. Polygon) held of vast but relatively remote grassland territory, where the Soviets conducted weapon testing at very large scale on a four major testing venues with two research reactors."Semipalatinsk Test Site." The Nuclear Threat Initiative, 2021. For the 40 years, the Semipalatinsk-21 was kept as a former Soviet nuclear testing venue where the nuclear weapon testings (456 nuclear explosive operations were conducted with 116 atmospheric nuclear tests (in air and on surface) taking place at the "Experiential Field" between 1949 and 1963) without the regard of the environmental safety or public health concerns for the local Kazakhs.Vakulchuk, Roman, Kristian Gjerde, Tatiana Belikhina, and Kazbek Apsalikov. "Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing: The Humanitarian Consequences." Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 2014.
With the enforcement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in 1963, the Soviet program managers began conducting underground nuclear testing and slowly moved the weapon testing infrastructure to Novaya Zemlya, which is north of the Russia. Opposition by local Kazakhs, the Soviets conducted the last test at Semipalatinsk-21 took place in November 1989 and left an active nuclear warhead in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as Kazakhstan inheriting the Semipalatinsk-21 along with Baikonur.Soviet nuclear testing in 1989
As of current, the Semipalatinsk-21 is overseen by the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan with focused on the site's peaceful conservation and its mission is to provide scientific-technical support in areas covering: nuclear power development in Kazakhstan, development of fusion technologies, radiation ecology in Kazakhstan, non-proliferation regime support, and information and staff support in the nuclear industry."National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan." Национальный ядерный центр Республики Казахстан
Nevada Semipalatinsk movement
The Glasnost' (Russian:Гласность) initiatives led by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 provided the Kazakhstani people to demand the halt of the Soviet nuclear testing, and it gained more public support when the news of possible radioactive contaminants the testing site emitted became public in 1989.
Named as Nevada Semipalatinsk led by Kazakh activist, Olzhas Suleimenov, successfully halted the Soviet nuclear testing in Semey and it played a positive role in promoting public understanding of "the necessity to fight against nuclear threats and finding solutions to global ecological problems", according to UNESCO.
Between 1989 and 1992, Kazakh activists toured the United States with the Nevada Desert Experience in hopes of spreading awareness about the detrimental and radioactive effects of nuclear testing.Rozsa, George Gregory. "The Nevada Movement: A Model of Trans-Indigenous Antinuclear Solidarity." Journal of Transnational American Studies, 2020. At the same time, the Western Shoshone, the Native American tribes of the Great Basin, was also working on attempts to reclaim their land, "Newe Sogobia", which is located in the adjacent areas of American nuclear test site known as Nevada Test Site (NTS).Rozsa. "The Nevada Movement." Inspired by this, Kazakhs and American activists worked in collaboration through political engagements and exchanged delegates. Following similar timelines, the antinuclear movement was successful in pressuring Kazakh government to close Semipalatinsk-21 in 1991 as well as the U.S. Congress in halting the testing at the Nevada Test Site in 1992.
The Kazakhstani cooperation with the United States
On 29 August 1991, the Semipalatinsk-21 was officially closed by the Kazakhstani government as the United States, through its Department of Defense, engage in a mission with the objective of enabling further protection nuclear installations and their safe decommissioning.
The American Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) worked closely with the Kazakhstani agencies in a joint project known as the Kazakhstani-United States Cooperative Threat Reduction (KUSCTR) project which lasted about 26 years, that safely decommissioning the Semipalatinsk-21 facilities. As a result, the Americans aided the Kazakhstanis in the initiative to safely destroy all nuclear testing infrastructure and in 2000, a final explosion at Semipalatinsk-21 was carried out to destroy its infrastructure.
Deweaponization
On 16 December 1991, Kazakhstan declared independence from the Soviet Union (ten days before its disintegration), Kazakhstan suddenly inherited, along with Ukraine, the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Besides nuclear testing site, Kazakhstan was the most significant site for Soviet military where its biological weapons program under Ken Alibek was based in Stepnogorsk, and chemical weapons were being manufactured in Pavlodar.
Following Ukraine, Kazakhstan became the fourth largest nuclear state with 1,400 nuclear warheads mounted on the 108 or 147 (sources vary) SS-18 ICBMs. In addition, Kazakhstani military also had 40 Tupolev Tu-95 bombers equipped with 320 cruise missiles and hundreds of nuclear weapon support infrastructure. Fear of nuclear proliferation particularly attracted the international attention due to unsubstantiated rumors reported the sale of nuclear warheads to Iran, which was pursuing its own nuclear program. Despite the growing fears of Iranian acquisition of former Soviet nuclear warheads, the operational command and control of these weapon system had remained under the Russian Rocket Forces in Moscow.
With Semipalatinsk-21 site, Kazakhstan also inherited the Baikonur, which Russia debated for the control until agreeing to give ownership to Kazakhstan in 1994.
With aging weapon infrastructure and widely reported cancer cases, the Kazakhstani government reached an understanding to denuclearize its territory by returning all nuclear warheads to Russian Federation in 1994 after signing to legal Alma-Ata Protocol in 1991. On 29 August 1991, the Kazakhstani government closed the former Soviet Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site. In 1992, Kazakhstan further committed to acceding to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as non-nuclear weapons states that would not develop, possess, or control nuclear weapon as soon as possible, which they were able to do on 13 December 1993. They also accepted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and assisted in drafting the Central Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty (CANWFZ).
+ Former Soviet Weapons of Mass Destructions sites in Kazakhstan .
Legacies
Health effects In understanding the way these nuclear tests have affected populations, Kazakh authorities have run into challenges due to lack of data that would outline the happenings at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (SNTS), and the difficulty of measuring radiation. It is also argued that much of the challenge also stemmed from the restriction of available information on health data that the Soviet military and health institutions collected at the time. In addition to this, health studies surrounding the test site started relatively late, making it difficult to trace the early effects of irradiation.
Despite this, there has been an expressed concern from local health authorities regarding radiation health effects and cancer. Conducted by Bauer, et al. in the 1960s was an analysis of a cohort study that included 19,545 inhabitants of exposed and comparison villages around Semipalatinsk that would confirm the detrimental effect of radiation to health. In their examination of mortality over the 40 years of data collecting, they have found large differences between the two sample populations in which the rate of mortality and cancer was far larger in the exposed group than the comparison group. The most common cancers found within the exposed group were traces of cancer in tumors, lung cancer, stomach cancer, breast cancer, and esophageal cancer in women.
Possible indicators of early acute effects (1950–1960) have also been identified:
High infant mortality rate: 100-110 cases per 1000 infants were known to have been affected in areas that were most exposed. Congenital malformations: understood to be more frequent in groups that were exposed. Most common types were congenital malformations of the nervous system and facial malformations. Leukemia: frequency of leukemia found in children doubled between 1945 and 1948.
In terms of long term early effects, in addition to the increase of mortality and cancer, cardiovascular diseases were more prevalent in the exposed group where the level of cardiovascular disease among 40-49 year-olds was comparable to the levels typically found in 50-59 year old's in the comparison group. Rates of mortality due to cardiovascular disease were also higher in the exposed group. Women who were exposed to radiation in childhood also experienced malformations among their children upon birth. This is proven to be due to the effects of nuclear testing radiation as following 1985, the rates of malformation in children dropped, possibly due to a new generation of mothers who have not been exposed to the radiation.