Radiation in Kazakhstan
A nuclear dustbin?
Cleaning up the site where the Soviet Union tested its atomic weapons
WHENEVER an extreme change in the weather occurs in Kazakhstan, especially when it suddenly rains hard, people who lived through the Soviet period still wonder if another rocket has gone up at Baikonur, the site of the Russian space programme. Or have the Chinese resumed their nuclear tests in nearby Lop Nor? Or is the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site being used again? In fact, only Baikonur is still in use. But memories linger. The four decades during which the Soviet Union tested weapons of mass destruction have left Kazakhstan a heavy legacy. “It is very difficult to bear alone the whole expense of resolving problems of global importance,” complains President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
Between 1949 and 1989, more than 450 atmospheric and underground explosions were conducted at the Semipalatinsk testing site, which, at 18,500 square kilometres (7,140 square miles), is the size of Wales. The total energy released by all these explosions is estimated to have exceeded 2,500 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. About 300,000 square kilometres of territory suffered ecological damage and will take 300 years to recover, says Mr Nazarbaev.
How many people were exposed to radiation is still unclear. When Kazakhstan inherited the test site after the collapse of the Soviet Union, about 1.6m people were estimated to have received at least some radiation as a result of the tests. In 1998 this estimate was reduced to 1.2m. More than 100,000 people are believed to have been heavily affected by the tests. Cancer and birth defects are said to be much more common in the Semipalatinsk area than in other parts of Kazakhstan.
Last week Mr Nazarbaev used the tenth anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk site to appeal for money. He said that the cost of coping with the effects of radiation would be more than $1 billion. So far, he said, Kazakhstan had received only $20m. But perhaps the president's officials are notmaking best use of what help is available. Foreign aid, offered with the best intentions, appears to be ignored. Britain's Department for International Development has been keen to help Kazakhstan start to reclaim the contaminated territory, but has seen its work badly hampered. “We are almost close to closing the file because the authorities have been very difficult,” says Christelle Generoso, who works on the project.
In a move that seems to contradict the president's wishes for a swift clean-up, officials are now considering a plan to import low and medium-grade radioactive waste from abroad. This would be buried along with Kazakhstan's own radioactive waste. Some countries are desperate to dump such undesirable material elsewhere, and are prepared to pay a high price to do so. Russia itself is considering taking other countries' radioactive rubbish. Kazakhstan's reasoning is that with money in the bank for being a nuclear dustbin, it could proceed quickly with a general clean-up.
The national nuclear energy company, Kazatomprom, estimates it could earn up to $40 billion over the next 25 to 30 years. Its specialists are confident that they have the perfect spot to dump the stuff, old uranium mines in western Kazakhstan; or at Semipalatinsk itself, where new storage facilities could be created. Local people may feel that what they are creating are new problems.