3 Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site was the main location of the Soviet Nuclear Testing Program 1949 – 1989, home to a total of 456 nuclear explosions. In the arms race with the United States, the Soviet Union developed the program quickly following the Trinity Test by the United States in 1945. The 18,000 sq. km area in north- eastern Kazakhstan, previously a natural reserve, was selected in 1947 based on a quick aerial survey of the area, without taking into account thousands of settlers located within the region. It was swiftly developed into a military test base for nuclear weapons technology. Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site became a vast landscape of experiments of surface, aerial and underground tests. It was at one of the test areas, Opytnoe Pole (Experimental Field), that Soviet Union entered the nuclear age with a detonation of nuclear device RDS-01 ‘First Lightning’ on August 29, 1949 at 7:00 a.m. (GMT +6). The communications infrastructure at the Field was a sophisticated network of under- ground cables that ran for kilometres connecting the towers that measured the magnitude of the explosions. Before the first test the Soviets were closely following the set up of the Trinity Test in Nevada – a steel tower with a nuclear charge hoisted up at the top. Key replicas of potential targets like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, military targets as well as animals were posi- tioned around at various distances in order to test the impact of the explosion. A set of facilities built about 10 km from the ground zero moni- tored the measuring equipment in the towers and the explosion itself. Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site remained active for 40 years. During that time Soviet propaganda convinced the residents of the Polygon that nuclear weapons were a worthy investment that would make their nation stronger in the event of a nuclear war. However, local residents including nuclear scientists, military personnel and independent animal farmers have not been properly safeguarded from the tests. After numerous surface and aerial experiments in the 1950s and early 1960s people began to report illnesses, majority of them being various types of cancers, however the authorities denied these having any connection to nuclear tests. By the late 1980’s along with policies of Perestroika by the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, people had become vocal critics of the nuclear program, calling on authorities to close the site and end the tests once and for all.
from the top: Map of the Field site showing concrete structures, radiation levels and the path of the journey travelled Archival image of the Field just after the nuclear test. ‘Experimental Field after RDS-1 explosion, 1949’ Nuclear Weapons Complex. The XXI Century Encyclopaedia, Russia’s Arms and Technologie s; Volume 14, 2013. p 262 Radioactive craters at the Field Archival image of the detonation of a first Soviet nuclear bomb RDS-1 (Joe 1) from: Kuran, P. (Director). (1995). Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (Motion Picture on DVD). USA: Visual Concept Entertainment (VCE)
all images: Andrey Chernykh, except archival material noted in the captions
The total power of 116 nuclear tests (86 atmospheric and 30 surface) performed at the Field left the landscape ravaged with craters and ruins. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Semipalatinsk site was closed in 1991 by the president of newly independent Kazakhstan. Without a proper demilitarisation plan a lot of infrastructure and equipment was left intact. An economic recession followed, which resulted in years of looting on site by local villagers and unsuccessful attempts to secure the site. There
is a severe shortage of warning signs or any kind of proper safeguarding from the radiation. A shepherd from a local village can easily walk into an irradiated area and graze his livestock without any knowledge of presence of radiation. Scrap metal scavenging continues to this day; the site suffers from neglect but most importantly a lack of proper rehabilitation planning. It stands as an impressive collection of artifacts and landforms, a testament to a bygone nuclear era.
On Site review 35 : the material culture of architecture
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