Semipalatinsk test site

The landfill is located in Kazakhstan on the border of Semipalatinsk (now East Kazakhstan ), Pavlodar and Karaganda regions, 130 kilometers northwest of Semipalatinsk , on the left bank of the Irtysh River .

The landfill covers 18,500 ^[1] km². On its territory is the previously closed city of Kurchatov , renamed in honor of the Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov , previously designated as Moscow-400, Bereg, Semipalatinsk-21, Konechnaya station. On geographical maps, this place, as a rule, is designated as “Konechnaya” (by the name of the station) or “Moldary” (a village that became part of Kurchatov).

By the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 172 dated February 7, 1996, the lands of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site were transferred to the reserve land: Karaganda region - 131.7 thousand ha, Pavlodar - 706 thousand ha, East Kazakhstan - 978.9 thousand ha ^[1] .

The total area of ​​the used territories is estimated at 304,000 km² ^[1] .

The coordinates of one of the craters formed by the explosions are

For aviation support of the training ground, Plankton military airdromes (a ground airfield on the southern outskirts of Kurchatov , where the air squadron was based - military unit 55115) and Filon (50 km southeast of Kurchatov, near the village of Chagan) were used. In addition to the military unit 55 115, the 647th mixed air support regiment of special support, based in the Crimea at the Bagherovo airfield ^[6] , was also involved in providing the training ground.

The first test of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union was carried out on August 29, 1949. The power of the bomb was 22 kilotons . The creation of the test site was part of the nuclear project, and the choice was made, as it turned out later, very successfully - the terrain allowed for underground nuclear explosions in adits and in wells.

The drawback was the presence of the PRC consulate in Semipalatinsk, but after a while it was closed. By Decree of the Council of Ministers No. 2939–955 of August 21, 1947, the construction that had already begun was transferred to the military department, and the training ground received a new name - “Training ground No. 2 of the USSR Ministry of Armed Forces (military unit 52605). The first head of "Training ground No. 2" was artillery lieutenant general P. M. Rozhanovich , scientific director - deputy director of the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences M. A. Sadovsky , later an academician ^{[7] [8]} .

On August 12, 1953, a RDS-6s thermonuclear charge with a capacity of 400 kilotons was tested at the test site ^[1] . The explosion was low air, the charge was placed on the tower at an altitude of 30 m above the ground. As a result of this test, part of the landfill was very heavily contaminated with radioactive products of the explosion, and a small radiation background is still preserved in some places.

On November 22, 1955, the RDS-37 thermonuclear bomb was tested at an altitude of about 2 km by dropping it from an airplane ^[9] .

On October 11, 1961, the first underground nuclear explosion in the USSR was carried out at the test site.

After the entry into force of the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Tests in Three Environments (in air, space and under water), signed on October 10, 1963 in Moscow between the USSR , the USA and Great Britain , only underground explosions began to be conducted at the test site.

From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 ^[1] nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, in which at least 616 nuclear and thermonuclear devices were detonated, including: 125 atmospheric (26 ground, 91 air, 8 high-altitude) ; 343 nuclear test explosions underground (of which 215 are in adits and 128 in wells). Dozens of hydro-nuclear and hydrodynamic tests were also carried out (the so-called "NCR" - incomplete chain reactions). The total power of nuclear charges tested in the period from 1949 to 1963 at the Semipalatinsk test site was 2500 times higher than the power of an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima ^[10] . Radioactive clouds of 55 air and ground explosions and a gas fraction of 169 underground tests went beyond the limits of the landfill. It was these 224 explosions that caused radiation pollution throughout the eastern part of Kazakhstan.

In 1989, the famous Kazakhstani public figure Olzhas Suleimenov created the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement, uniting the victims of nuclear tests around the world.

The last explosion at the training ground was carried out on October 19, 1989.

On August 29, 1991, the Semipalatinsk test site was closed by the government of the Kazakh SSR.

From 1996 to 2012 (a significant part of the work was in 2012), Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States conducted a secret operation at the landfill to search for and collect fissile materials - in particular, about 200 kg of plutonium, as well as equipment used to create and test nuclear weapons. The presence of this plutonium and accurate information about the operation were hidden from the IAEA. US $ 150 million was spent on these works, part of the work was funded under the Nunn-Lugar program (Joint Threat Reduction Program), and part - directly to LANL . The landfill was virtually unprotected, and the plutonium collected on it could hypothetically be used for acts of nuclear terrorism or transferred to third countries to create nuclear weapons. A significant part of the materials was located in the Degelen mountain range, which the participants in the program conventionally called "Plutonium Mountain" ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

The experimental field of the landfill is divided into several sites:

• P-1: The first atomic bomb was tested on this site, and then the hydrogen one, and the site was also used for several other ground tests.
• P-2: Ground nuclear test site.
• P-3: Site for air tests of nuclear bombs of small and medium power.
• P-5: Site for aerial testing of high-power nuclear bombs.
• P-7: Site for testing the seismic effects of a near nuclear explosion of low power.

• On August 29, 1991, by decision of the government of the Kazakh SSR, the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was closed ^{[11] [12]} . A major role in making this decision was played by the popular anti-nuclear movement Nevada - Semipalatinsk and its leader Olzhas Suleimenov .

• In 1992, Kazakhstan, already as an independent state, signed the Lisbon Protocol to START-1 , in which it fixed its obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

• On December 18, 1992, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On Social Protection of Citizens Affected by Nuclear Tests at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site was adopted.

• In December 1993, according to the directive of the Minister of Defense of Russia, the Semipalatinsk test site (officially the 2nd State Central Testing Ground) was disbanded ^[7] .

• In 1993, Kazakhstan was one of the first in the CIS to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons , and in December 1994, the nuclear powers of the world signed a Memorandum on Security Guarantees for Kazakhstan.

• In 1994, the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from the country's territory was completed.

• In 1995, the last nuclear charge at the former Semipalatinsk test site was destroyed.

• 1996 - Kazakhstan became a party to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty .

• 1997 - The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to assist the regions of Kazakhstan affected by nuclear tests.

• In 2000, the last adit for nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk test site was destroyed ^[1] .

• Kazakhstan is one of the countries (along with Ukraine and Belarus ) that voluntarily renounced nuclear weapons ( Lisbon Protocol ).

In the hazardous areas of the former landfill, the radioactive background still reaches 10-20 millientgen per hour (as of 2009). Despite this, people still live on the training ground (for 2009) ^{[13] [14]} . The landfill territory was not guarded in any way and until 2006 it was not marked on the ground. The population used most of the land for land grazing.

For 2005, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan:

• Near and on the territory of the former nuclear test site, which is part of the East Kazakhstan region, there are 57 peasant farms, with a total land use area of ​​51.7 thousand hectares ( Abralinsky , Zhanasemeysky districts ). These farms contain 13 thousand heads of sheep, 600 horses and 2.5 thousand heads of cattle.
• In the Pavlodar region in the landfill there are distant plots of two business entities of the May district (the May pedigree farm and the Azhar Undіrіs LLP), the total land area used by them is 15802 hectares. As of May 1, 2005, in these economic entities there are 8 thousand heads of sheep and 1,200 heads of horses.
• On the territory of SINP, 8 peasant farms are engaged in crop production. A total of 3938.2 ha of sown area is used. Each year, on this area, an average of 2796 tons of grain, 130 tons of potatoes, 70 tons of vegetables, 230 tons of sunflower oil seeds are produced, 25 thousand tons of hay is harvested ^[1] .
• 1,323,000 people were recognized as victims of nuclear tests, but only 1,057,000 people received certificates proving the rights of victims ^[1] .

Only in 2005, under public pressure and on the recommendation of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, work began on marking the boundaries of the landfill with concrete pillars. Thanks to the efforts of the public and scientists of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan , in 2008, work began on the creation of engineering protection facilities for some of the most contaminated sites of the landfill to prevent access to the population and livestock. In 2009, army security was organized for the Degelen test site. The Semipalatinsk nuclear test site is the only one of the many nuclear test sites in the world where the population lives and uses it for agricultural purposes ^{[15] [16]} .

In addition, since the beginning of the 1990s, 10–20 kilometers from the test site of the Balapan site, the Karazhyra coal mine has been developed, the products of which are supplied to power plants and enterprises of Russia ^[17] , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan ^[18] .

• Artillery Lieutenant General P. Rozhanovich - (February 1948 - September 1948)
• Artillery Major General S. Kolesnikov - (September 1948 - November 1950)

• The creation of the Soviet atomic bomb
• Chagan
• Nevada Nuclear Test Site
• Nuclear testing ground in Novaya Zemlya

• Gallery of panoramic photos and video Semipalatinsk-21 , (author Timofei Yuryev)
• Country Limonia excerpts from the book of memories of the landfill.
• Zharikov A. D. Death Range
• The National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan , located in the landfill
• Kurchatov, East Kazakhstan region (Official site of Akim of the East Kazakhstan region)
• View of a polygon from space on Google Maps
• The consequences of nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site. Previously inaccessible information - maps, photographs, scientific reports and other data. The site of the public organization Karaganda Ecological Museum ( Kazakhstan ).
• Site about the Semipalatinsk test site Unknown test facts at the Semipalatinsk test site.
• Chagan or Semipalatinsk-4 (according to NATO classification, DOLON airdrome ) A site about the disappeared military town of 79 heavy bomber aviation division (TBAD) of long-range aviation.
• Life at the landfill . Chernobyl liquidator on environmental and social problems of Semipalatinsk. Radio Liberty , the program "Time and Peace." 08/28/2009.
• In the scenery of the last war . Photo plots from the landfill.