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Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakhstan

From series “The Most Radioactive Zones on the Planet”
Year: 1949.

The Semipalatinsk test site is located in Kazakhstan. It was the first place in the Soviet Union for the nuclear bombs tryout. That significant event happened in August, 1949. Since then, the area of ​​18 500 square meters was a regular place of the testing nuclear weapons. Today, the landfill is a true champion of the world in the number of nuclear explosions per unit of area. Roughly estimated, numerous tests have affected about 200 000 people.

Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakhstan Various interesting stories are associated with this landfill. During the Soviet era, there was a secret city of Moscow-400, which was later renamed in Kurchatov. Today, this city is closed, but people lived there up to the 90s of the last century. The bulk of the population were soldiers and scientists, who were involved in the development of nuclear weapons. The nuclear tests were carried out at the site until 1989. Officially, this territory was closed only in 2012.

All these years, the landfill area was severely guarded. There are suggestions that  radioactive elements, which are now used for secret development in third world countries, were collected there. Radioactivity in the closed landfill is still very high; it reaches 20 mR per hour. The main victims of the ecological disaster are locals, who still continue to live in a radioactive area. They are engaged in the cultivation of the contaminated land and grazing in the steppes, where dangerous nuclear bombs have being exploding several decades ago. Next - Mayak Factory


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Semipalatinsk Test Site - interactive map

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