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Monday 24 October 2011

Kazakh steppes toward nuclear recovery

Twenty years since Kazakhstan abandoned its nuclear test site, country’s atomic arsenal has gone from being the world's fourth-largest to nothing. Decades on from seeing hundreds of explosions, the environmental and human cost is still being felt.

Years later, Kazakh people who live in the area still remember the nuclear tests that tore their lives into “before and after”.

“More than 1.5 million people were affected by the nuclear tests. The combined power of all the explosions at the Semipalatinsk Test Site was equivalent to around 2,500 Hiroshimas,” says President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) was the largest in the world. To get an idea of how vast it actually is, it must be seen from the air. Affecting an area of around 300,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Germany, Semipalatinsk stretches out further than the eye can see in every direction.     More Read

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