Semipalatinsk test site: Introduction

Journal of Radiation Research, 1999

Accumulated external radiation doses of residents near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site of the former USSR are presented as a results of study by the thermoluminescence technique for bricks sampled at several settlements in 1995 and 1996. The external doses that we evaluated from exposed bricks were up to about 100 cGy for resident. The external doses at several points in the center of Semipalatinsk City ranged from a background level to 60 cGy, which was remarkably high compared with the previously reported values based on military data.

2022

, to the last atmospheric weapon test at Lop Nor conducted by the People's Republic of China in October 1980, several countries have conducted a series of nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere. The large quantities of anthropogenic radioactive nuclides injected into the stratosphere originated from nuclear weapons tests that gradually migrated to the troposphere (0.5-1.7 years, Hirose et al. 1987) and fell as radioactive fallout on land and ocean surfaces throughout the globe, so-called global fallout. The total amount of radiation released from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s. Global fallout included various radionuclides such as 90 Sr, 137 Cs, 239 Pu, and 240 Pu. Among them, 137 Cs originated from the global fallout (hereafter, 137 Cs-GFO) and has attracted significant social attention for its environmental impact due to its long half-life (30.2 years) and has been used in studies of soil erosion processes. Two

Journal of Radiation Research, 2006

A short analysis of all 111 atmospheric events conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) in 1949-1962 with regard to significant off-site exposure (more than 5 mSv of the effective dose during the first year after the explosion) has been made. The analytical method used to assess external exposure to the residents living in settlements near the STS is described. This method makes use of the archival data on the radiological conditions, including the measurements of exposure rate. Special attention was given to the residents of Dolon and Kanonerka villages exposed mainly as a result of the first test, detonated on August 29, 1949. For the residents of those settlements born in 1935, the dose estimates calculated according to the analytical method, are compared to those derived from the thermoluminescence measurements in bricks and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements in teeth. The methods described in this paper were used for external dose assessment for the cohort members at an initial stage of an ongoing epidemiological study conducted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Recently revised methods and estimates of external exposure for that cohort are given in another paper (Simon et al.) in this conference.

Health Physics, 2002

Nuclear weapons testing was conducted in the atmosphere at numerous sites worldwide between 1946 and 1980, which resulted in exposures to local populations as a consequence of fallout of radioactive debris. The nuclear tests were conducted by five nations (United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, and China) primarily at 16 sites. The 16 testing sites, located in nine different countries on five continents (plus Oceania) contributed nearly all of the radioactive materials released to the environment by atmospheric testing; only small amounts were released at a few other minor testing sites. The 16 sites discussed here are Nevada Test Site, USA (North American continent), Bikini and Enewetak, Marshall Islands (Oceania); Johnston Island, USA (Oceania), Christmas and Malden Island, Kiribati (Oceania); Emu Field, Maralinga, and Monte Bello Islands, Australia (Australian continent); Mururoa and Fangataufa, French Polynesia (Oceania), Reggane, Algeria (Africa), Novaya Zemlya and Kapustin Yar, Russia (Europe), Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan (Asia), and Lop Nor, China (Asia). There were large differences in the numbers of tests conducted at each location and in the total explosive yields. Those factors, as well as differences in population density, lifestyle, environment, and climate at each site, led to large differences in the doses received by local populations. In general, the tests conducted earliest led to the highest individual and population exposures, although the amount of information available for a few of these sites is insufficient to provide any detailed evaluation of radiation exposures. The most comprehensive information for any site is for the Nevada Test Site. The disparities in available information add difficulty to determining the radiation exposures of local populations at each site. It is the goal of this paper to summarize the available information on external and internal doses received by the public living in the regions near each of the mentioned nuclear test sites as a consequence of local fallout deposition. Health Phys. 82(5):706 -725; 2002

Encyclopaedia of Public International Law in Asia (EPILA), by Seokwoo Lee (ed.), 2022

The testing of nuclear weapons in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) refers to the series of nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union near Semipalatinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan, from 1949 until 1989, with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities, and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. The total number of nuclear tests on the site reached 456. Nowhere else in the world was there such a large concentration of nuclear explosions in one place over such a long period of time.

1992

This report describes the Offsite Radiation Safety Program conducted during 1991 by the Environmental Protection Agency`s (EPA`s) Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory-Las Vegas. This laboratory operates an environmental radiation monitoring program in the region surrounding the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and at former test sites in Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, Nevada, and New Mexico. The surveillance program is designed to measure levels and trends of radioactivity, if present, in the environment surrounding testing areas to ascertain whether current radiation levels and associated doses to the general public are in compliance with existing radiation protection standards. The surveillance program additionally has the responsibility to take action to protect the health and well being of the public in the event of any accidental release of radioactive contaminants. Offsite levels of radiation and radioactivity are assessed by sampling milk, water, and air; by deploying thermolumi...

In 1955 Doctor Saim B.Balmukhanov of the Ministry of Health visited the villages of Dolon and Sarzhal, north and west of the Semipalatinsk Test Site where USSR above ground nuclear detonations occurred. He saw similarities between the shepherds in this region and those affected by the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. The following year he led a team of six doctors to study the region. In 1957 he influenced the Kazakhstan Academy of Science to write the Soviet Ministry of Defense regarding the adverse health effects on the public. But in 1959 he and his team were dismissed, and he was banned from visiting Semipalatinsk. However, he continued to follow the health situation and collect data. This document is an account of his personal experiences and professional findings on what happened at the test site, and its effects.

Scientific Technical Review

Public company "Nuclear Facilities of Serbia" is the only operator of nuclear facilities and holder of licenses to perform nuclear activities in the country. By the current legislation, environmental radiation monitoring in the vicinity of nuclear facilities is performed to assess the level and control the external exposure of the population and environment to ionizing radiation due to the operation of nuclear facilities. This paper presents an overview of the representative environmental radiation monitoring results regarding radioactive contamination level and ambient gamma dose rate equivalent in air and precipitation for the year 2021. The obtained results show that there is no adverse influence on the population and environment and the radiation risk for individuals in the population is negligible.

A tooth enamel electron spin resonance (ESR) dosimetry study was carried out with the purpose of obtaining the individual absorbed radiation doses of population from settlements in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, which was exposed to radioactive fallout traces from nuclear explosions in the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site and Lop Nor test base, China. Most of the settlements are located near the central axis of radioactive fallout trace from the most contaminating surface nuclear test, which was conducted on 29 August 1949, with the maximum detected excess dose being 430 ± 93 mGy. A maximum dose of 268 ± 79 mGy was determined from the settlements located close to radioactive fallout trace resulting from surface nuclear tests on 24 August 1956 (Ust-Kamenogorsk, Znamenka, Shemonaikha, Glubokoe, Tavriya and Gagarino). An accidental dose of 56 ± 42 mGy was found in Kurchatov city residents located close to fallout trace after the nuclear test on 7 August 1962. This method was applied to human tooth enamel to obtain individual absorbed doses of residents of the Makanchi, Urdzhar and Taskesken settlements located near the Kazakhstan–Chinese border due to the influence of nuclear tests (1964–1981) at Lop Nor. The highest dose was 123 ± 32 mGy.

Central Asian Journal of Global Health, 2015

The nuclear bomb testing conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan is of great importance for today’s radiation protection research, particularly in the area of low dose exposures. This type of radiation is of particular interest due to the lack of research in this field and how it impacts population health. In order to understand the possible health effects of nuclear bomb testing, it is important to determine what studies have been conducted on the effects of low dose exposure and dosimetry, and evaluate new epidemiologic data and biological material collected from populations living in proximity to the test site. With time, new epidemiological data has been made available, and it is possible that these data may be linked to biological samples. Next to linking existing and newly available data to examine health effects, the existing dosimetry system needs to be expanded and further developed to include residential areas, which have not yet been taken into acco...