Semipalatinsk Test Site (the Polygon)

The Semipalatinsk Test Site, nicknamed 'the Polygon', is a huge former nuclear test area in the steppe of eastern Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union used it as its main place to test nuclear weapons, and it covers about 18,000 square kilometres.

The first Soviet atomic bomb was exploded here in 1949. Over about 40 years, until 1989, hundreds of tests took place, and the site closed on 29 August 1991. The numbers differ by source: Wikipedia counts 468 tests, while this globe's card says 456. The tests exposed many people to radiation, and today the site is one of the best-studied test sites in the world.

How the site was chosen

Lavrentiy Beria, who led the Soviet atomic bomb project, picked the spot in 1947 and claimed the steppe was empty. Prisoners built the first test buildings. The first bomb test, in 1949, scattered fallout over nearby villages. Later, tests were moved underground at places such as the Degelen mountains. One test, called Chagan, even made a lake. Altogether, about a quarter of all the nuclear tests in history took place here.

After the tests

Soviet authorities hid the full effect of the radiation for years, and Kazakh experts estimate that about 1.5 million people were exposed to fallout. When the site closed, Kazakhstan took it over. From 1996 to 2012, scientists from Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States secretly worked together to secure leftover plutonium in tunnels. Today the area is open to visitors, and concrete instrument towers near ground zero are called the geese.

On the globe

The model shows the empty Kazakh steppe with test towers near ground zero. The globe card lists it as a restricted place.