The Semipalatinsk Test Site
The area of the Semipalatinsk Test is about 20,000‚‹‡u, with a fairly large farming and grazing population. However, the Soviet government did not tell the people of the danger from the tests. Even after the damages began to surface among the people, the government insisted that there was no danger from the tests or that they were necessary for national defense. So the tests continued. Some 500 nuclear tests were conducted until the Kazakh government finally closed the test site in 1991 becouse of opposition by the local people.
*This baby contracted septicemia. Immunity level is low among the local people and blood abnormalities are found in 80% of the children in the Semipalatinsk region. The low leukocyte count in the blood easily leads to infectious diseases. Many suffer from leukemia myelosis.