Semipalatinsk nuclear test site

Fig. 10.16. Semipalatinsk nuclear test site Polygon , area = 18,000 km ...

Shell, P. and Hutter, A.R., Environmental radiation measurements at the former Soviet Union s Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and surrounding villages. Environmental Measurements Laboratory, New York, Report 1995. 

An impulse graphite reactor IGR (O Fig. 59.10) with a central channel to test fuel assemblies at the NPP transient operation modes and a research reactor IVG-1 (O Fig. 59.11) to test full-scale fuel assemblies (FA) of nuclear rocket engines of 3 x 10 -4 x 10 N and higher thrust were built at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Further, an experimental NPP model of a low thrust was mounted at the same site. 

Yamamoto M, Tsumura A, Katayama Y, Tsukatami T (1996) Plutonium isotopic composition in soil from the former semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Radiochim Acta 72 209-215 Burger M (2002) UNEP DU Post-Conflict Assessment 2001 Serbia/Montenegro. Report of the Swiss Team. Spiez Laboratory Report with 1 annex, Switzerland... 

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the environmental consequences in the major region of Soviet nuclear testing during the Cold War. The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (or SNTS), or Nuclear Polygon in northeast Kazakhstan, was the site of nearly 500 tests from 1949 to 1989. It comprises about a 6,950 mi (18,000 km ) of land in the steppes. The first Soviet test was an atmospheric test conducted on 29 August 1949 the magnitude was 22 kT, nearly the same yield as the first conducted by the U.S. (19 kT). 

Gusev, B. K., AbyUkassimova, Z. N. Apstihkov, K. N. (1997). The Semipalatinsk nuclear test site A first assessment of the radiologictil situation and the test-related radiation doses in the surrounding territories. Radiation and Environment Biophysics, 36,201-204. 

Logachev, V. A., et al. (1998). Population health in regions adjacent to the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Bethesda, MD Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Contract Report 98-4. 

Zhumaddov, Z., et al. (2000). Thyroid abnormahty trend over time in northeastern region of Kazakhstan, adjacent to the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. Journal of Radiation Research, 41, 35-44. 

Fig. 101.1 Location of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, the nuclear test site, detonation sites, and communities adjacent. (Cartography by Dick Gilbreath)...

Algazin, A.I., Kalyado, V.B., Shoikhet, Ya.N., Demin, V.F., Zakharchenko, I.E., Ilyin, L.A., Kiselyov, V.I. and Zaitsev, E.V., Assessment of radiological consequences of the nuclear weapon tests on the Semipalatinsk test site for population of Altai region. IAEA-SM-339/46P, page 171, Vienna, Austria,... 

Shoihet, Ya.N. et al.. Radiation impact of nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site on the population of the Altai region in the Russian Federation. IAEA-SM-339/82, p. 39, Vienna, Austria, 1996. 

I begin by looking at the nuclear tests conducted during the Cold War by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Next I discuss the selection of Semipalatinsk as a test site and the number of tests conducted. The next several topics focus on the impacts of the tests, especially the early warnings by some Soviet scientists of potential health... 

By March of 1949 flte corroded coolant channels had been replaced, the graphite had dried, and the A Reactor was ready for restart. Unfortunately, the same troubles plagued the reactor as before. Stuck fuel slugs, cooling water flow variations, and core power fluctuations resulted in less than optimal plutonium production. Despite all of this, by midsummer 1949, a sufficient quantity of plutonium had been removed from the reactor to be processed into relatively pure Pu and assembled into a weapon. The first Soviet nuclear detonation took place at the Semipalatinsk test site on August 29, 1949. 

SEMIPALATINSK. Now located in Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk was the principal nuclear weapon test site of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was established in accordance with a 1947 decision by the Soviet Communist Party s Central Committee and the Council of Ministers. The USSR detonated its first nuclear weapon there on 29 August 1949 under the scientific direction of Igor V. Kurchatov. It was also the site where the USSR detonated its first thermonuclear weapon (12 August 1953) and its first hydrogen bomb (22 November 1955). A total of 467 nuclear weapons were detonated at Semipalatinsk firom 1949 to 1990. The test facility was shut down in 1991. The site is today occupied by the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The region has experienced serious environmental and human health damage as a result of the nuclear weapon tests. See also JOE. 

Testing of nuclear weapons was the first and the largest source of contamination of the global environment by radionuclides. As the result of atmospheric tests by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and China 25 millions curies of Cs, 16 million curies of Sr and 6,5 billion curies of tritium were released into the global atmosphere, mostly between 1955 and 1966 [OTA. p. 34]. The Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests on Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya test-sites between 1949 and 1990. 

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