Government Decides Fate of Hundreds of Thousands of Hectares of Former Semipalatinsk Test Site

The government has transferred 832,900 hectares of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site to reserve lands and distributed the plots among three regions, Orda.kz reports.

The Abay region received the largest share — 505,400 hectares in the Zhanasemey district. The Pavlodar region received 285,900 hectares in the Maysky district, and the Karaganda region received 41,600 hectares in the Karkaraly district.

The document states that these territories are to be included in the nuclear safety zone in the future.

The new resolution came into force on April 14, 2026.

The Semipalatinsk test site was one of the Soviet Union’s largest nuclear testing grounds. Over the years, more than 460 explosions were carried out there — on the surface, underground and in the air. Radioactive contamination spread far beyond the site, affecting vast territories and hundreds of thousands of people.

Unfortunately, many laws meant to protect the victims of the Semipalatinsk test site have, for decades, worked against them instead: compensation has been stripped away, benefits have been lost, and people are effectively paying themselves for damage caused by the state. Why this happened, and how it can be fixed, is explained in this article.

Original author: Natalya Ovchinnikova

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