August 29 marks the anniversary of the first nuclear test at the Soviet Union’s Semipalatinsk test site in modern-day Kazakhstan—and also its closure.

August 29 is the United Nations’ International Day Against Nuclear Tests, an annual observance meant to highlight the consequences of nuclear weapons testing and promote the end of nuclear weapons tests worldwide.

The choice of August 29 for the date was historically fortuitous. On August 29, 1991, shortly before its final dissolution in December of the same year, the Soviet Union formally closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, one of its principal nuclear proving grounds. The test site was located in modern-day Kazakhstan, which inherited it after its independence; the newly independent Central Asian nation proposed creating the international observance to honor the occasion, and the UN General Assembly adopted it on December 2, 2009. First observed in 2010, the point of the day is to promote the idea that nuclear weapons aren’t only dangerous when detonated in war; the development and testing of nuclear weapons has also caused intense harm to people and the environment.

The Significance of the Semipalatinsk Test Site

In an echo of history, August 29 also marked the first test at the Semipalatinsk site—and the first Soviet nuclear test of all. On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its “RDS-1” test at the site, confirming that Moscow had atomic weapons and ushering in the nuclear phase of the Cold War.

The Soviet test—taking place only four years after America’s Trinity test in New Mexico, the first nuclear explosion in history—served to dramatically accelerate the nuclear arms race. In the years that followed, the United States and the Soviet Union detonated hundreds of additional nuclear weapons, and Semipalatinsk would go on to become one of the most heavily-used nuclear testing grounds on Earth. Between 1949 and 1989, Moscow conducted 456 nuclear tests at the site—116 atmospheric, and another 340 underground after the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) went into effect in 1963.

The PTBT came about in part because the early atmospheric tests caused radioactive fallout, which led to harm in nearby populations. This problem affected the Semipalatinsk test site, which was close to the city of Semipalatinsk (today Semey, Kazakhstan) and other towns. Long-term studies in the region have demonstrated that people in the region suffer from elevated risks of cancers and other health effects, though estimates of attributable deaths vary. Accordingly, the test site has become a symbol of the Cold War arms race and the human cost of nuclear weapons testing.

By the end of the Cold War, the liberalization of Soviet politics had allowed for the opposition to nuclear testing to become increasingly public. The Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement, founded in Kazakhstan in 1989, linked Soviet anti-nuclear activists with their counterparts in America, who opposed testing at the Nevada Test Site; both sides were able to put pressure on their governments without the contention that the other side would benefit. In part because of these efforts, Semipalatinsk was closed in 1991.

The anti-nuclear efforts also played a role in Kazakh nationalist sentiment during the late 1980s. Ironically, when the Soviet Union fell in December 1991, independent Kazakhstan inherited an enormous arsenal of the former empire’s nuclear weapons. Keeping hold of them would have been a firm deterrent to future aggression; nevertheless, Kazakhstan relinquished them, serving as an international model for nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.

Nuclear Testing Continues Sporadically to the Present

Semipalatinsk is only part of the story. Since 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted around the world. The United States itself has conducted over 1,000 tests—atmospheric, underwater, and underground. Early tests took place in the American southwest, as well as in the Pacific Islands—particularly Bikini Atoll, most of which remains contaminated from nuclear fallout to the present.

Other nations who have conducted nuclear tests include the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. (In addition, Israel and South Africa probably collaborated on a secret nuclear test in the South Atlantic in September 1979, although much about the incident remains unknown.) The destructive power of those 2,000 nuclear tests cumulatively is difficult to fathom.

Today, nuclear testing has become rare relative to the Cold War peak. It has been nine years since the most recently acknowledged nuclear test, conducted by North Korea in 2017. But the International Day Against Nuclear Tests serves as a reminder of past harms—and a caution against future lapses.

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a writer and attorney focused on national security, technology, and political culture. His work has appeared in Tablet, City Journal, The Hill, The Spectator, and The Cipher Brief. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global & Joint Program Studies from NYU. More at harrisonkass.com.

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