Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan (then the Kazakh SSR), south of the valley of the Irtysh River. The scientific buildings for the test site were located around 150 km west of the town of Semipalatinsk (latterly renamed Semey), with most of the nuclear tests taking place at various sites further to the west and south.
The site is also known variously as Semipalatinsk-21 (after the postal region of the Semipalatinsk Oblast it occupied), the Semipalatinsk Polygon, and latterly the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan.
The site was selected in 1947 by Lavrenti Beria, political head of the Soviet atomic bomb program (Beria falsely claimed the vast 18,000 km2 steppe was "uninhabited"). Gulag labour was employed to build the primitive test facilities, including the laboratory complex in the northeast corner on the southern bank of the Irtysh River. The first soviet bomb, Operation First Lightning was conducted in 1949 from a tower at the Semipalainsk Test Site, scattering fallout on nearby villages of Kazakh nomads (who Beria had neglected to evacuate). The same area ("the experimental field", a region forty miles west of Kurchatov City) was used for more than 100 subsequent above-ground weapons tests.
Later tests were moved to the Balapan subcomplex in the STS's southwest, and to Degelen Mountain (and the surrounding Degelen uplands) in the south. After the closure of the Semipalatinsk gulag, construction duties were performed by the 217th separate engineering and mining battalion (who later build the Baikonur Cosmodrome). Between 1949 and the cessation of atomic testing in 1989, 456 explosions were conducted at the STS, including 340 underground (borehole and tunnel) shots and 116 atmospheric (either air-drop or tower shots). The lab complex, still the administrative and scientific centre of the STS, was renamed Kurchatov City after Igor Kurchatov, leader of the initial soviet nuclear programme. The site was officially closed on August 29 1991.
The Semipalatinsk complex was of acute interest to foreign governments during its operation, particularly during the phase when explosions were carried out above ground at the experimental field. Several U2 overflights examined preparations and weapons effects, before being replaced with satellite reconnaisance. The US Defense Intelligence Agency is said to have been convinced that the Soviets had constructed an enormous beam weapon station at the STS (which wasn't the case). Some reports even claim the CIA experimented with remote viewing, hoping to glean details of activities at the STS by psychic means.
Semipalatinsk also hosts three of Kazakhstan's four nuclear reactors. The IGR complex hosts on 50 megawatt graphite-moderated reactor. The Baykal-1 complex hosts two: a 60 megawatt water-moderated reactor and a small zirconium hydride moderated research reactor (which is now disused). The laboratory complexes also contain two cyclotron laboratories and two particle accelerators.
External links
- Semipalatinsk test site's website (http://www.nnc.kz/e_index.php)
- The Nuclear Threat Initiative's page on the STS (http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/kazakst/weafacil/semipala.htm)
- Environmental study of the site's atomic legacy (http://www.environmental-expert.com/magazine/springer/00411/art12.pdf) (Adobe PDF document)
- detailed seismic data for world nuclear tests (http://www.iris.edu/data/reports/borDSA.pdf) - shows all explosions at STS from 1966 (Adobe PDF document)