August 29 is The International Day against Nuclear Tests
August 29 is a historical date for Kazakhstan, the world community, and the global anti-nuclear movement. On this day in 1991, the President of the Kazakh SSR signed a decree on the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear tests ground. In 2019 the Day of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear tests ground was included in the list of the national holidays in Kazakhstan.
The closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site became a long-awaited and fateful decision. This was the goal of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement established in 1989 and led by Olzhas Suleimenov. Thanks to the nationwide support, in 1989 the movement could halt 11 explosions at the Semipalatinsk testing ground out of 18 planned ones. The last explosion took place on October 19.
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union carried out its first nuclear test. From 1949 to 1989, at least 456 nuclear tests, as well as dozens of hydronuclear and hydrodynamic tests, were conducted on the sacred of the Kazakh people land, the birthplace of great Kazakh poet and philosopher Abai Kunanbayev.
August 29 was declared the International Day against Nuclear Tests on December 2, 2009, at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Kazakhstan initiated the adoption of this resolution to mark the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site on August 29, 1991.
The main tool for the cessation of nuclear weapon testing is the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 10, 1996. Kazakhstan took an active part in the development and adoption of the CTBT and was one of the first to sign it on September 30, 1996.