Four decades of nuclear testing: the legacy of Semipalatinsk

Not far from Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk), one of the main cities in the northeast of Kazakhstan, the vast steppe is interrupted by a big lake that resembles a natural pond, called Lake Chagan. The landscape looks peaceful, but it hides a curious story: that lake, with a crater depth of 100 m and a diameter of 400 m, is also known as the Atomic Lake and it was formed in 1965 as the result of a nuclear testing explosion. The Balapan area, where the lake lies, was part of the Semipalatinsk test site (STS), where the former Soviet Union, over a period of four decades, performed a total of 456 nuclear testing explosions, 111 of them in the atmosphere. The first test took place on Aug 29, 1949, and the programme was officially shut down in October, 1989. Four explosions were conducted between 1965 and 1968 within the framework of peaceful uses of the nuclear testing programme, such as construction of lakes or canals, one ofwhich generated Lake Chagan. 30 years on,what legacy has the programme left the people of northeastern Kazakhstan?