Revealing the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s “Number One Atomic City”: The United States paid to destroy nuclear materials

Revealing the secrets of the Soviet Union? The number one atomic city? The rise and fall: The United States paid for the destruction of nuclear materials

In the wilderness of northern Kazakhstan, lies a city forgotten by most people? Semi Palatinsk. During the Cold War, it served as the Soviet Union's first nuclear test base and was a target of Western intelligence agents. On August 29, 1991, on the anniversary of the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the Soviet Union, Nazarbayev, who was about to become the first president of Kazakhstan, announced that the "Atomic City" would be abandoned, making a major contribution to the international nuclear security system. In the following 20 years, the wounds left by the Soviet Union's massive nuclear explosions have not fully healed, and a new round of cooperation among the United States, Russia, and Kazakhstan to prevent nuclear proliferation has been in full swing.

Living next to a monster

At the end of World War II, when U.S. President Truman proudly told Stalin the news of successfully building the first atomic bomb, Moscow had already spent three years He spent a lot of time collecting all kinds of information about this super weapon, and Beria was the person who handled all this information. By 1947, the Soviet Union's atomic bomb development work was in full swing, and a special committee was responsible for the site selection of the nuclear test base. Eventually, they settled on a nearly deserted piece of land in Kazakhstan. Stalin and Beria successively signed their names on the site selection report, and Kazakhstan welcomed a "nuclear monster" into its home.

This unnamed piece of land, which is also 70 kilometers away from the nearest residential area, was quickly occupied by experts and construction workers recruited from all over the Soviet Union. The Kremlin gave it a "Moscow" 400? Temporary code name. Of course, like other secret Soviet military bases, this small town cannot be found on ordinary maps.

The first nuclear test in 1949 was not, as widely rumored outside, the locals not notified at all for precautions due to confidentiality requirements. A veteran who participated in the test, Jamblat Einer, told the Russian reporter who came to interview that his mission was to educate residents on how to avoid nuclear radiation. Unfortunately, many people did not know how to avoid nuclear radiation. Take the warning to heart and instead run outside to enjoy the ?spectacular view? when a nuclear explosion occurs. Without exception, they were severely irradiated. ?

According to Einer, before the nuclear explosion, the military placed tanks, cars, animals, and plants near the test site to determine how much destructive power the explosion could produce. After the experiment, many scientific researchers went to nearby residential areas to collect soil samples and observe the physical conditions of local residents. The results were used in research work. He said that the radioactive smoke produced in this and subsequent nuclear explosions spread to large areas of eastern Kazakhstan with the wind, causing serious pollution.

The ghost of nuclear pollution is wandering

In the following decades, the Soviet Union conducted more than 300 nuclear tests locally. No matter how thorough the protective measures were, it would inevitably cause harm to the physical and mental health of the Kazakh people. Cause trauma. At the 13th Busan Film Festival in South Korea in October 2008, Kazakh director Abdrashtov's "A Gift to Stalin" was selected as the opening film. The protagonist in the film is directly exposed to the violent wind caused by the nuclear test without knowing it. This is not only a reappearance of that period of history, but also a portrayal of the inner scars of Kazakhstan people today.

In 1960, Moscow 400 was renamed Semipalatinsk 21, and nuclear tests continued here. Before a certain test, the authorities notified residents in advance to evacuate. After the nuclear explosion, the residents returned to the village and found that poultry were everywhere with burns all over their bodies, and some animals that were lucky enough to survive also died within a short period of time.

In the 1970s, the city finally had a public name: Kurchatov, in honor of the nuclear physicist of the same name who made outstanding contributions to the development of the Soviet atomic bomb. Under the surface calm, there are still a large number of innocent civilians living in the city who were exposed to radiation from the nuclear tests that year and suffered from incurable diseases. An 18-year-old young man named Nikita was born unable to walk or speak. Although both his parents were in good health, he was believed to have been born with a disability due to a genetic mutation caused by nuclear radiation. Today, Nikita's only pleasure is to use a special mask made by her parents, use the power of her neck to control a tentacle, type and write poems on the keyboard, and post her works on the Internet. He thus got the nickname "Ant-Man".

Another patient named Serjankari is only 10 years old now. Like Nikita, his parents were healthy, but he was born with a birth defect. His condition is a strange form of "osteoporosis," in which bones are so fragile that they break with just the slightest impact. Nowadays, poor Serjankari can only survive by curling up in a chair specially made for him by his parents all day long.

What is even more tragic is that both Nikita and Serzhankari became ill only after many years. They did not meet the national compensation standards set by the Kazakh authorities and were unable to receive compensation. There are believed to be many similar examples.

Even soil is a subject of surveillance

If the tragedy caused by nuclear testing can be regarded as an increasingly blurred memory, then the possibility of nuclear materials falling into the hands of the Communist Party is The immediate threat.

From a desolate land to the most important nuclear testing base of the Soviet Union, the population of Semipalatinsk once reached tens of thousands. While supplies are tight in Moscow due to economic stagnation, people here are enjoying the country's best sausages, wine and even the best Pepsi. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the base was eventually closed, tens of thousands of troops were evacuated, leaving only 500 Kazakh soldiers guarding the entire city. However, the disappearance of the Russian soldiers does not mean that the place has been completely deserted. A large amount of radioactive materials are still stored in the same place, which has become a huge hidden danger of nuclear proliferation.

It was concerns about this issue that led to the initial and most successful cooperation between the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan. The United States spent a large amount of money to destroy or transfer these radioactive materials to Russia for storage. In 1992, Kazakhstan, less than a year after becoming independent, signed the Lisbon Protocol on non-proliferation and the gradual dismantling and shipment of missile and nuclear weapons, assumed the obligation not to possess nuclear weapons, and declared its territory a nuclear-free zone. In 1993, the United States signed an agreement with Kazakhstan to help the latter provide the technical and economic support needed to reduce nuclear weapons. In 1995, Russian and Kazakhstani military engineering units successfully transported all strategic and tactical nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan back to Russian territory. In the following years, similar actions were repeated several times, and Kazakhstan became the first country to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons.

However, transnational terrorist forces’ covetous pursuit of nuclear materials has become a sign of tension for all parties. Even if the atomic bomb manufacturing technology circulated on the international nuclear black market is unreliable, just a few simple "dirty bombs" will be too much for all countries. Therefore, preventing nuclear proliferation is not limited to avoiding the loss of the nuclear bomb itself, but also preventing the theft of nuclear materials. focus. The inventory of Semipalatinsk is naturally under strict monitoring. Not only that, but even the soil that was once contaminated is also a sensitive target. Frequent nuclear explosions have caused the soil of Semipalatinsk to contain high concentrations of Extremely highly radioactive material. Analysis shows that these soils can even be used directly to make "dirty bombs". So the Americans came up with an idea: cover the soil in the contaminated area with 2-meter-thick reinforced concrete slabs to prevent it from being taken away by criminals. This painstaking approach was dubbed "Operation Groundhog."

There is still a long way to go to eradicate the nuclear threat.

Not only the soil, but also the nuclear materials remaining in many underground caves are causing headaches for all parties. The Soviet Union signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963, and since then all nuclear tests have been conducted underground in accordance with the treaty. According to the calculations of experts, an underground nuclear test can only consume part of the nuclear material, and the rest will remain in the cave built for the test for a long time. If these nuclear materials leak, the consequences will be equally disastrous.

For this reason, the Americans once again decided to use the sealing method to prevent nuclear leakage. They tried to use technical means to seal all the caves, a project that took several years. In 1999, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana announced that the United States had sealed all underground caves. But it didn’t take long for people to hear the news. Local scavengers actually reopened the cave with earthen methods and stole equipment from inside to sell it for money. At least 10 scavengers died from exposure to radioactive materials.

With the deepening of these efforts, Russia has also shown increasing enthusiasm. At the beginning of the trilateral cooperation, Moscow has been unwilling to share with the other two countries the secret files left by the Soviet Union on the Semipalatinsk nuclear facility.

Its consideration is naturally that it does not want the United States to obtain too much secrets about Russian nuclear weapons through its work in Semipalatinsk. As we all know, Russia's "industry" is inherited from the Soviet Union. However, as mutual trust among the three parties increased, Moscow finally decided to share these materials. After the 9/11 incident, the Russian authorities showed greater enthusiasm in this regard.

Today, among the ruins of Semipalatinsk, the cooperation between the three countries is still proceeding in an orderly manner. You can see warning signs saying "Don't stay for a long time" in some important areas. In some places, outsiders are simply not allowed to approach because there is still radiation inside. Occasionally resident U.S. monitors can be found in other designated areas.

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Decades of ups and downs have made the once mysterious Semipalatinsk gradually known to the outside world. In addition to scientists and soldiers, private tourists from all over the world now also like to come. Explore here and relive the sad, dark and sobering past.