The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Security Announcement

Workers at the former Semipalatinsk test site poured special cement around remnants of nuclear experiments, closed tunnels, and concealed their entrances. On 26 March 2012, the presidents of Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States announced that a long joint effort to secure the material was nearly complete. [2] [1]

The Soviet Union had tested nuclear weapons at the site from 1949 to 1989, leaving the remains of many underground experiments. An American funded program sealed 181 tunnels and thirteen shafts by 2000, but scavengers entered the abandoned grounds. A new assessment after 2001 examined whether material left in the experiments could be recovered and used in weapons. [1]

Russian knowledge of the tests, American technical assistance, and Kazakh control of the site enabled scientists to identify more than forty tunnels needing attention. Crews entombed the material so that extracting it would require conspicuous mining. Kazakhstan established an exclusion zone and received surveillance equipment and training to help detect intrusions; continued protection of the restricted areas remained necessary. [1]

Related Diplomats

1. Erlan A. Idrissov [3] [4] [5]

Related Reading

• Kazakhstan and the United States