Kazakhstan to create special zone on lands of former Semipalatinsk Test Site

ASTANA. KAZINFORM – Kazakhstan is to create a special zone with its own legal status on lands of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site where pollution levels are above the norm, Kazinform reports.

«Paragraph 6 of the Plan (to realize practical measures for the returning of the territory of the Semipalatinsk Test Site into a safe condition and the development of its infrastructure) provides for the renewal of borders of the Test Site following results of a comprehensive environmental survey with the transfer parts of its lands into economic circulation to the local executive bodies before 2030,» Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov wrote in his response to the Senate deputies’ request.

The Kazakh Prime Minister added that the long works on a comprehensive environmental survey of the territory of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site ended in 2021. The survey showed that the radioactive pollution is of local nature and does not spread to the entire territory of the Test Site.

In his response, Smailov also noted exceeding radionuclide content in environmental facilities outside the territory of the Test Site.

«Following the survey, the main ways and mechanisms of the current and potential spread of radioactive substances were elaborated,» the Kazakh Prime Minister wrote in the response.

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