The Birth of the Semipalatinsk Test Site
The world was jolted by the sheer power of nuclear weapons when the United States unleashed an uranium bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki just three days later. These catastrophic events left an indelible mark, pushing Stalin to recognize a seismic shift in global power dynamics. The Soviet Union now felt compelled to embark on its own quest for nuclear weapons.
To oversee this ambitious undertaking, Stalin appointed Lavrentiy Beria, a formidable figure who had previously held the position of chief of NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB. Beria’s mandate was clear: develop a nuclear bomb for the Soviet Union. Leading the charge was physicist Igor Kurchatov, who assembled a brilliant team of scientists, among them the renowned dissident and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Andrey Sakharov.
These scientific minds would become the backbone of the Soviet Union’s nuclear program.
Enormous resources were poured into the endeavor, with approximately 700,000 individuals involved by 1950––more than half of these participants were prisoners, laboring under the weight of their circumstances.1Medvedev, Z. Stalin and the Atomic Bomb. 1999.
Nestled within the vast Kazakh steppe and occupying a territory of 18,300 km2, the Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) experienced a series of nuclear tests that profoundly impacted the land and its inhabitants. Between 1949 and its closure in 1991, the STS in Kazakhstan witnessed over 450 nuclear detonations conducted by the Soviet Union. Among these tests, more than 110 occurred in the atmosphere and on the Earth’s surface.2“Four Decades of Nuclear Testing: The Legacy of Semipalatinsk.” EClinicalMedicine 13 (August 29, 2019): 1. Link.
The government of Kazakhstan has officially acknowledged the suffering endured by more than one million individuals directly or indirectly affected by the consequences of the STS, referring to it as the “Nuclear Devil.”3Akorda.kz. “Remarks by President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the International Conference Titled ‘From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World’ — Official Website of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.” Accessed September 6, 2023. Link.
A Successful First Test?
In the heart of Semipalatinsk, the Soviet Union’s relentless pursuits reached a pivotal moment of triumph on August 29, 1949. It was here that a plutonium bomb, nearly identical to the one dropped on Nagasaki four years earlier, detonated with resounding success.4The Nuclear Threat Initiative. “Semipalatinsk Test Site.” Accessed July 27, 2023. Link. This achievement marked a significant milestone in the Soviet Union’s nuclear ambitions.
Veniamin Tsukerman, gifted in capturing X-ray photographs of explosions, was drawn to the epicenter of scientific research in Arzamas—the very heart of the atomic bomb design endeavor.
Tsukerman, together with his wife Zinaida Azarkh, vividly recount the restless anticipation preceding the scheduled explosion. The night before, they reportedly found themselves plagued by sleeplessness, fully aware of the monumental event set to unfold at six o’clock the following morning..5Tsukerman, V. A. (Veniamin Aronovich), Z. M. (Zinaida Matveevna) Azarkh, and D. M. Pursglove, eds. Arzamas-16: Soviet Scientists in the Nuclear Age: a Memoir. Nottingham: Bramcote Press, 1999, pp. 76.
As the appointed hour approached, all involved in the momentous experiment took their designated positions. Then, in a transformative instant, the atmosphere was forever altered.
An explosion. A bright flask of light. A column of flame, dragging clouds of dust and sand with it, formed the ‘foot’ of an atomic mushroom. Kurchatov said only two words: ‘It worked’. 6Ibid., pp. 77.
In their narrative, the pair discloses that the explosion’s power exceeded initial predictions. This discrepancy arose because the theoreticians calculated their estimates based on the lower limits of experimental measurements. Additionally, the lack of precise data on the equation of state for plutonium played a significant role, as it was assumed to closely resemble that of uranium.7Ibid., pp. 77.
