‘Let us be a lesson,’ says Kazakhs, wary of the return to nuclear testing. Communities in the vicinity of the massive nuclear testing site in northern Kazakhstan that dates back to the Soviet period have a message for the authorities of the country: “Let us be a lesson.” This message comes at a time when Russia is warning of the growing risk of nuclear war and relations with the United States are sinking into a deep freeze.

Between 1949 and 1989, hundreds of experiments were conducted on the desolate steppe near Semey, initially known as Semipalatinsk and located close to the border between Kazakhstan and Russia. Radiation has had a disastrous effect on the environment and the local population’s health, and it continues to adversely affect people’s lives in that region even today.

A significant number of specialists on nuclear proliferation think that it is highly improbable that any nuclear powerhouse will resume testing more than thirty years after the previous test.

However, tensions have arisen as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has increased hostile language. Additionally, the weapons control infrastructure that has been constructed since the fall of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago has started to unravel.

At the beginning of November, President Vladimir Putin revoked the Russian government’s acceptance of the international treaty that forbade nuclear weapons tests in 1996. As far as Moscow is concerned, it will not result in a restart of testing unless the United States takes the initiative first.

“Let our suffering be a lesson to others,” said Serikbay Ybyrai, a local leader in the village of Saryzhal. As a child, he witnessed experiments being carried out around 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. “If this testing resumes, humanity will disappear.”

When devices were detonated above ground, the authorities would urge residents to leave their homes and schools because they were afraid that earth vibrations might cause structures to collapse. This continued until 1963, when the tests were moved underground.

“I remember I was about five years old,” said Baglan Gabullin, a resident of Kaynar, another community that lived under the shadow of nuclear testing. “What I remember is that I witnessed the nuclear testing.”

He remembered how grownups would tell him and his companions not to gaze in the direction of the explosion; they would tell them not to stare. Even though we were relatively tiny, we decided to look out of curiosity. In the beginning, the flare was yellow, but as time passed, the mushroom turned black,” he explained.

According to estimates provided by the Kazakh government, up to 1.5 million individuals were exposed to residual radioactive fallout as a result of the testing. Almost one million people were given certificates that confirmed their position as victims of testing, which made them entitled to a monthly reimbursement of 18,000 tenge, equivalent to $40.

The phrase “everyone started dying” After suffering the loss of the majority of her family members to diseases that she said were connected to nuclear testing, Maira Abenova, an activist from the Semey region, established a non-governmental organization to safeguard the rights of nuclear test victims. She requested that governments refrain from allowing nuclear escalation.

“As someone living with the consequences of what you could call 40 years of nuclear warfare, I think we can tell the world what we have gone through,” added the politician. There is a shortage of trustworthy data about the precise health effects of testing in Kazakhstan.

On the other hand, scientists have found that exposure to radioactive material on the ground, inhalation of radioactive particles in the air, and consumption of contaminated food, which includes local animals, all led to an increased risk of developing cancer and cases of congenital deformity.

Gulsum Mukanova describes how she and other youngsters would observe above-ground explosions, sometimes known as atmospheric testing, in the village of Saryzhal, which is home to around 2,000 people and is encircled by blue wooden fences. The dwellings in Saryzhal are modest and painted white.

“We were children, everything was interesting to us,” she informed us. The mushrooms would be the focus of our attention.

As Mukanova, who is in her mid-60s, said, “My father passed away when he was 58 years old; then my older brother passed away, and then my sister passed away.” “Everyone started dying.”

In addition, Gabullin stated that losses were prevalent when he was speaking in the vicinity of a tiny monument that had been created in Kaynar to honor those who had died as a result of nuclear testing.

I employed approximately three hundred tractor drivers; only two or three still live now. All of them passed away as a result of cancer and leukemia,” he stated. “Even the schoolchildren who worked for me then, now that they are 50–53 years old, are already dying.”

The testing was not linked to any diseases or untimely deaths; neither he nor Mukanova produced any proof to support this claim.

During the time that communities like Kaynar and Saryzhal were subjected to direct radiation, steppe winds swept radioactive fallout across an area that was about the size of Italy.

Many of the land, currently dotted with lakes resulting from bomb craters, is still considered too polluted to be inhabited or cultivated.

THE CONTAMINATION RESISTS FOR MANY THOUSAND YEARS

Around 450 experiments were conducted there, with more than 100 conducted in the atmosphere and the other ones conducted underground. Following the implementation of a treaty in 1963 that prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, space, or underwater; the latter options were utilized since they were seen as being less hazardous.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moscow could not access the Kazakh site from that point forward. Presently, its primary equivalent may be found in Novaya Zemlya, a military installation located on an Arctic archipelago in the extreme north of Russia.

According to nuclear specialists, any testing that would occur now would most likely occur underground, posing concerns to the environment and human health. “Underground testing can also have severe consequences,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre, who is a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

“Radioactive particles can vent into the air, and there is also the potential for groundwater contamination,” she told Reuters. She also mentioned that Russia’s position was that it did not plan to test at this time. “What’s so dangerous about radioactive contamination is that it lasts for generations.”