Radioactive Waste and Contamination—Central Asia
Various aspects of nuclear energy research, nuclear fuel processing, and weapons production took place in every republic of the former Soviet Union. In the Central Asian republics, areas of radioactive contamination are widespread.
By far the worst situation exists at the former nuclear-weapons test site west of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk), in Kazakhstan. At this test site 1.8 million hectares in area, 456 nuclear explosions, including many atmospheric ones, were conducted between 1949 and 1989. The new Kazakhstan government closed this test site in 1991.
As a result of some of the atmospheric tests, fallout traveled far beyond the test site. Tests revealed that 14 percent of the region's inhabitants received elevated radiation doses from the explosions. Farther downwind, measurable fallout from tests was detected in the adjacent Altay Kray (Altay Territory) on twenty-two different occasions. During the 1960s, about 38,000 curies of radioactive strontium and 50,000 curies of cesium entered the Irtysh River in Kazakhstan.
An estimated one million people inhabit areas contaminated by this testing. International Atomic Energy Agency specialists examined the area in 1994 and concluded that while most of the test site presented no health risk to local populations, portions should remain off limits to human occupancy. Bradley (1997: 512) stated that 72,000 hectares are too contaminated for human use.
Many other potential sources of radioactive contamination exist in Central Asia, though none as serious as the Semipalatinsk test site. Four of the five republics (excepting Turkmenistan) either produced or processed uranium ore, collectively providing the majority of the Soviet Union's output. Several of these mines and milling plants were shut down following independence in 1991. A major fuel-processing facility also existed at Oskemen (formerly Ust'-Kamenogorsk). Radioactive waste storage sites occur in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
The USSR's first commercial breeder reactor (which can process plutonium) was completed in 1972 at Aqtau (formerly Shevchenko) on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea coast. It provides electricity and desalinizes saltwater for local use and is the only commercial nuclear reactor in Central Asia. It is under the control of Kazakhstan's Atomic Energy Agency.
The first "peaceful atom" subsurface nuclear detonation in the USSR occurred in Kazakhstan in 1965, creating a large crater called Lake Chagan. Contamination levels here required the site to be closed to the public. Numerous other underground tests were conducted in Kazakhstan and a few in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Varying amounts of low-level radiation were released by these tests.
During the Cold War, a number of intercontinental-ballistic-missile complexes were constructed in Kazakhstan; all have now been deactivated and the warheads sent to Russia for disassembly.
Further Reading
Bradley, Don J. (1997) Behind the Nuclear Curtain: Radioactive Waste Management in the Former Soviet Union, edited by D. R. Payson. Columbus, OH: Battelle Press.
Potter, William. (1993) Nuclear Profiles of the Soviet Successor States. Monterey, CA: Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Pryde, Philip. R., and Don J. Bradley. (1994) "The Geography of Radioactive Contamination in the Former USSR." Post-Soviet Geography 35, 10: 557–593.
Shkolnik, Vladimir. (1995) "Nuclear Safety and the Regulatory Process in the Republic of Kazakhstan." CIS Environmental Watch 7: 29–36.
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