nuclear-news

Kazakhstan’s land of danger due to nuclear testing

Soviet nuclear legacy surfaces at atomic museum  , By Keith Rogers, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, Sep. 3, 2011 Kazakhstan is grappling with lingering health issues and trying to rehabilitate the land 20 years after nuclear weapons testing stopped at the former Soviet Union’s proving ground .

Heavily contaminated areas of the Semipalatinsk nuclear site are closed to access by Kazaks who used the land for farming and grazing. The government, with the United States, is working to keep dangerous materials out of sinister hands, said Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the United States.

“All those years we have been trying to make a full assessment of the dangers that were brought to the land by nuclear testing,” he said Thursday. drissov spoke before joining a panel discussion at the Atomic Testing Museum to mark the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear site.”The government’s task is to completely rehabilitate the area from the human health point of view and nature, the environmental health point of view,” he said……

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests that involved detonating 969 nuclear devices.

The United States conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, including 24 that were conducted with the United Kingdom. Most, 904, were conducted at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which is now called the Nevada National Security Site. These included 100 detonated in the atmosphere and 804 underground. Some involved more than one device.

Soviet nuclear legacy surfaces at atomic museum – News – ReviewJournal.com

September 5, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Kazakhstan