Factsheet on the International Day against Nuclear Tests and Kazakhstan’s contribution to nuclear disarmament
Background
- Over four decades, between 1949 and 1989, the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan was one of the primary locations for Soviet nuclear testing.
- More than 460 nuclear tests were conducted above ground, underground, and in the atmosphere, releasing enormous amounts of radioactive material into the air, water, and soil.
- More than 5 million people in Kazakhstan were exposed to radioactive fallout during these atmospheric and underground tests, and vast tracts of land are now contaminated in Semey (previously Semipalatinsk) and the surrounding areas.
- In 1991, Kazakhstan shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, renounced its nuclear-weapon status and began decommissioning its nuclear military arsenal, the fourth largest in the world at that time (approximately 104 missiles with 1040 warheads and 40 heavy bombers).
- Kazakhstan ratified the START 1 Treaty in 1992 and four years later, in September 1996, all of Kazakhstan’s 104 ICBMs (armed with more than 1000 warheads) were safely removed to Russia and destroyed.
- Kazakhstan was also party to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), a key legal instrument which allowed the elimination of a whole class of nuclear tactical missiles, and actively participated in the Special Verification Commission until the Treaty’s demise in 2020.
Factsheet on the International Day against Nuclear Tests and Kazakhstan’s contribution to nuclear disarmamentДата публикации
29 августа 2023