Kazakh National Al-Farabi University

Law Faculty

KARAYEVA Malika, student of the 1st year of education

Science teacher Bekmukhametova Kalamkas Maratovna

(Almaty City, Republic of Kazakhstan)

                                      

PROBLEM OF SEMIPALATINSK POLYGON

Semipalatinsk proving ground is the first and one of the biggest nuclear proving grounds of the USSR, also known as SNPG – Semipalatinsk Nuclear Proving Ground.[1] Its official name is: The 2nd State Central Proving Ground (2SCPG). In the territory of Semipalatinsk Proving Ground there is a protected object where the most modern nuclear weapons were kept. There are only four such objects in the world.[2] In 1996—2012, secret joint operation of Kazakhstan, Russia, and the USA was carried out without notification of IAEA on collection and burial of about 200 kg of plutonium left after tests in the polygon.  The works were financed according to Nann-Lugar Program (Joint Threat Decrease Program).[3][4] On the threshold of the new millennium, the humankind,  summarizing the past and looking in the future, recognizing achievements of the civilization, cannot but admit globality of ecological problems and plan its activity with taking into account the necessity of their solution and advancement on the way of stable development. Testing of nuclear weapons that were carried out for 40 year in Semipalatinsk Nuclear Proving Ground, did irretrievable damage to health of people and the environment, and provoked growth of total morbidity and mortality of population. The whole territory of Semipalatinsk region and adjacent to the proving ground districts of Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan and Karaganda regions are recognized as an ecological disaster zone. The main point of interest of the former polygon is “atomic” lake, which is in the testing ground “Balapan”.  It was formed as a result of explosion of a 140 kiloton thermonuclear weapon in1965. The diameter of the lake is 500 meters; the depth from the water surface is 80 meters.  Soviet strategists planned to build in such a manner storage lakes in droughty regions of the Soviet Union. Significant efforts are necessary to come to a new quality of life, safe for a human being, and to confidently think about the future of our children and preservation of the environment. In the conditions of economic instability, reorganization of management structures, intensive investment is needed to solve vital ecological problems, especially important on the initial stage of realization of the ecological strategy. Such funds are insufficient in Kazakhstan, that’s why financial and technical support of countries and organization – donors is needed on the first stage of such work.  The National Plan of actions on preservation of the environment foresees that Kazakhstan will be able after a while to create mechanisms that permit to support ecological program owing to its own resources… Today one can state with confidence that development in our country of atomic power related sciences is a completely unprecedented and even paradoxical fact. All had to be quite opposite: when the last military man left the proving ground near Semipalatinsk, Kurchatov City had to  throw in lot with numerous post-soviet cities-ghosts.  And what it would seem simpler – to wind contaminated territories with barbed wire and forget about them forever. But the reality is much more complicated – consequences of the nuclear testing were, remain and will remain a part of our life.

 

 

List of References

1.       Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 30.08.1995

2.       Ecology Code

3.       Ecological Problems of Kazakhstan 

4.       Nyssanbek U.M. Conceptual Problems of Ecological Safety in the Republic of Kazakhstan // ANALYTIC, 2003.¹5. – P.17.