International Day Against Nuclear Tests

International Day Against Nuclear Tests

The world marks the annual International Day Against Nuclear Tests on Wednesday to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on August 29, 1991 and raise awareness of the consequences of nuclear testing.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th August, 2018) The world marks the annual International Day Against Nuclear Tests on Wednesday to commemorate the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on August 29, 1991 and raise awareness of the consequences of nuclear testing.

The commemorative date was approved on December 2, 2009 by a UN General Assembly Resolution, initiated by Kazakhstan and co-sponsored by 26 other countries.

The nuclear test site near the former Kazakh SSR's town of Semipalatinsk (later renamed Semey) was set up in 1949 to test the first Soviet atomic bomb. It became the Primary testing site for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, as well as the second largest nuclear test site and the fourth nuclear arsenal in the world.

The Soviet Union's first nuclear weapons test involved the RDS-1 and was held at the Semipalatinsk test site on August 29, 1949. The first test of a Soviet hydrogen bomb the RDS-6s was held there on August 12, 1953. The Soviet Union's first two-stage hydrogen bomb the RDS-37 was first tested at the Semipalatinsk site on November 22, 1955.

On August 5, 1963, the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water was signed in Moscow by the USSR, the United States and the United Kingdom. After it came into force on October 10, 1963, only underground explosions were carried out at the Semipalatinsk site.

At least 468 nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site between 1949 and 1989. The total blast yield tested at the site in 1949-1963 was 2,500 times higher than that of the atomic bomb detonated by the United States over Japan's Hiroshima. Radioactive clouds of 55 air and ground explosions, and the radionuclide gases of 169 underground tests went beyond the perimeter of the test site.

These 224 tests caused radioactive contamination in eastern Kazakhstan. About 1.3 million people were officially recognized as victims of the tests after Kazakhstan was proclaimed an independent state and President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on closing the nuclear test site.

The mortality rate is still high near Semey, where critically high levels of cancer patients and children born with disease are seen. The life expectancy in these area does not exceed 40-50 years.

The main instrument for stopping nuclear weapons tests is the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 10, 1996, but has yet to come into force. Doing so requires the ratification of the 44 states listed in the annex, of which eight have not yet ratified it.

The UN General Assembly resolution adopted on December 2, 2009 noted that the main goal of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests was to educate and inform people about the consequences of nuclear test explosions and the need to stop them.

The International Day Against Nuclear Tests was marked for the first time in 2010. Annually coordinated events are held on this day throughout the world. These events include symposiums, conferences, exhibitions, lectures, information programs and others.

On August 29, 2012, speaking at the International Parliamentary Conference in Astana, President Nazarbayev launched the ATOM Project in order to gain global public support for the final cessation of nuclear tests and, ultimately, the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

More than 312,000 people around the world have signed an online petition for the ATOM Project to date.