For more than a quarter of a century there has been silence over the steppes of Semipalatinsk. The last time this earth was shaken by an underground explosion was in 1989. And two years later, the President of Kazakhstan, by his decree, put an end to the more than 40-year history of the former main nuclear test site of the USSR. The lands of the former landfill were transferred to the reserve lands of the three regions of the republic.
The birth of the first nuclear weapons test site should be attributed to 1947. There was no nuclear weapon in the USSR yet, but already under the auspices of the all-powerful People's Commissar Lavrenty Beria, grandiose work was launched to create it.
Brighter than a thousand suns
The best scientific and engineering forces of the Union took part in the project, which was actively assisted by the Soviet intelligence, which reached out to American atomic secrets, as well as German atomic physicists who were taken out of defeated Germany, who did not manage to make an atomic bomb for the Fuhrer. Together, the Soviet bomb was created in record time, and on August 29, 1949, a flame "brighter than a thousand suns" flared up at the Semipalatinsk test site for the first time - an atomic bomb with a capacity of 22 kilotons in TNT equivalent was detonated. This was the beginning of the history of the gigantic enterprise, which received the official name "2nd State Central Testing Ground". Over the 40 years of his activity, at least 468 explosions of atomic and hydrogen bombs of various types and power have been carried out here.
The landfill is located 130 kilometers northwest of Semipalatinsk, on the left bank of the Irtysh, and occupies an area of 18.5 thousand square kilometers. Its "capital" is the city of Kurchatov. Before receiving the name of one of the creators of Soviet atomic weapons, this closed settlement was widely known (to a narrow circle of people) as Moscow-400, Bereg, Semipalatinsk-21, Konechnaya station. In travel instructions, this place, as a rule, was designated very symbolically - "Final". The first head of the training ground was a recent front-line soldier, Lieutenant-General of Artillery Pyotr Rozhanovich, and Academician Mikhail Sadovsky became the scientific supervisor.
In August 1953, the fourth anniversary of the test site was marked by the testing of the world's first 400-kiloton RDS-6s thermonuclear bomb, nicknamed "Sakharov's puff". The explosion was airborne, very low - the charge was placed on a 30-meter tower. As a result, a significant part of the landfill received a strong radioactive contamination, traces of which remain to this day.
On November 22, 1955, the test of the so-called two-stage hydrogen bomb RDS-37, in which an atomic charge played the role of the first stage (in fact, a fuse), was carried out in the history of the test site. The power of the bomb was about 1.5 megatons. During this test, a rather acute emergency situation arose.
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On November 20, a Tu-16 bomber was supposed to drop the bomb at a certain point on the range. The explosion was planned at an altitude of 2 km. The plane took off from the Zhana-Semey airfield and gained the specified altitude - 12 thousand meters, but by the time of the test approach to the target, the weather deteriorated, and the range was densely covered with clouds. In addition, the radar sight on the plane failed. The crew reported on the impossibility of targeting the bomb. For the first time in the practice of nuclear tests, the question arose of a forced landing of an aircraft with a bomb of enormous power. There was a proposal to drop a bomb in the mountains far from settlements without initiating a nuclear explosion.
For many reasons, the proposal did not pass. In the meantime, the fuel supply on the plane was nearing the end, a decision had to be made immediately. Only after Andrei Sakharov gave a written conclusion on the safety of the landing of the plane with the bomb, and the Air Force experts analyzed all the emergency landing scenarios, was the go-ahead for landing. The bomber commander put all his piloting skills into this landing, the landing was extremely smooth. The bomb was removed from the plane for verification and re-preparation for the test, which was successfully completed two days later.
Atom underground
After the entry into force of the International Treaty Banning Nuclear Tests in Three Environments (in the Air, Space and Under Water), signed in October 1963, only underground explosions were carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site. In total, 343 were carried out. The total power of the nuclear charges tested in Kazakhstan was 2.5 thousand times higher than the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
In Soviet times, a storage facility for the most modern nuclear weapons was located on the territory of the Semipalatinsk test site. There were only 4 similar objects in the world.
In 1955, Semipalatinsk had a competitor - the northern nuclear test site, and the center of gravity of the tests began to shift to the north. And what was left on the banks of the Irtysh after the tests ended here? Today it is basically a closed zone, areas of which are radioactively contaminated to varying degrees. The closer to the "Experimental field" - the epicenter of ground explosions, the higher the dosimeter readings - up to 800 microroentgens per hour (at a rate of no more than 50). Among the scorched steppe absurdly protrude 4-storey buildings - "gander" in the slang of the old residents of the landfill. They are of three types: A, B and C. Hence their affectionate nicknames: Annushka, Bukashka, Vera. In the past, measuring complexes were located here. In this area, black translucent peas resembling pearls are still found in the grass. These are, in the language of old-timers, "haritonchiki"named after one of the creators of the first Soviet atomic bomb - academician Yuli Khariton. The nature of the "hariton" is not exactly established, but those who read the "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatskys recognize them as "black splashes from the Zone." Once upon a time it had its own infrastructure: various types of buildings and equipment - tanks, airplanes, etc. There was also its own "metro" - one station. She is still here, safe and sound underground.
The former landfill left a bad memory. It is still not known exactly how many people suffered from the trials. The secret statistics that were available in Soviet times disappeared without a trace. Oncology, early mortality, congenital malformations of newborns and other diseases are the legacy of the landfill. In the village of Kainar, located near the landfill, 396 people died from cancer, infant mortality increased 5 times. Scientists believe that, despite the measures taken, the activities of the landfill directly affected the health of about 10 thousand local residents.
In 1989, on the initiative of the Kazakh public figure Olzhas Suleimenov, the international movement "Nevada - Semipalatinsk" was created, uniting victims of nuclear tests all over the world.
In the wild north
The Northern nuclear test site (Object 700) was laid back in 1954. When choosing the location of the new test site, the following considerations were taken into account: the increased power of the tested weapons dictated the need for the maximum distance of tests from settlements and communications. It was also necessary to minimize the impact of tests on the economic and economic activities of the region. In addition, it was necessary to study the impact of a nuclear explosion on ships and submarines in real conditions. Naturally, the last requirement could not be fulfilled in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The islands of Novaya Zemlya met all these requirements in the best way. Their area (83 thousand square kilometers) was four times the size of the Semipalatinsk test site, there were practically no settlements, no economic activity was carried out on the islands. The problem of the small local population was solved radically: about 300 Nenets were evicted to the mainland in Arkhangelsk and Amderma. We can say they were lucky - the migrants were employed, and the elderly were given a pension.
Three test sites were created on the archipelago: Black Lip, Matochkin Shar and Sukhoi Nos. By the fall of 1955, the test site was ready for the first tests. The entire administration and the residential town were located in the village of Belushya Guba, which grew up on the southern tip of Yuzhny Island and became the "capital" of Novaya Zemlya, until recently known as Arkhangelsk-55. The population is about 2500 people.
The first explosion took place on 21 September underwater. Further, up to October 1990, when the moratorium on any nuclear tests came into effect, 132 air, underground and underwater nuclear explosions thundered on Novaya Zemlya. Not so much when compared with 468 explosions of the Semipalatinsk tests. However, the total power of all northern explosions is 94% of the total power of all Soviet tests. Oddly enough, the damage to the environment turned out to be significantly less than in Semipalatinsk. The fact is that the first Semipalatinsk explosions were extremely dirty due to the imperfection of the design of the charges, and then they looked at ecology as the tenth thing. Perhaps, the comparative radiation purity of the Novaya Zemlya explosions is also explained by the fact that mainly thermonuclear charges were tested here,which (unlike atomic ones) do not scatter heavy radioactive isotopes.
The landfill became famous for its explosion, which was not more powerful in the history of mankind. On October 30, 1961, at an altitude of about 4 thousand meters, a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb with a capacity of more than 58 megatons exploded, which went down in history, as Nikita Khrushchev aptly put it, as "Kuz'kina's mother." The results were dire. The shock wave circled the globe three times. The light radiation was capable of causing burns even 100 kilometers from the epicenter. The crash was heard within a radius of 800 kilometers. But the explosion was surprisingly clean. After this grandiose experiment, the Avalanche project was born. The idea arose (according to legend, Academician Sakharov was the first to express it) that the explosion of such a charge under water off the coast of North America could cause a powerful tsunami that would sweep away everything on the US coast. Khrushchev liked the idea,it was decided to simulate the tsunami using a powerful TNT charge. In 1964, 8 experiments were carried out. This is how their participants recall it: “Outwardly, the development of the explosion was extraordinarily beautiful. A dome of water formed over the epicenter of the explosion. A light sultan escaped from the dome vertically upward, at the top of which a mushroom cloud began to form. At the base of the dome, a base wave formed from the water and a surface wave went to the shore. It became clear that it would not be possible to generate a tsunami with the help of underwater explosions - in general, the Americans were lucky. Nevertheless, even nowadays, the idea, slightly shaking off the dust, was pulled out into the light and "accidentally" shown to the press. A dome of water formed over the epicenter of the explosion. A light sultan escaped from the dome vertically upward, at the top of which a mushroom cloud began to form. At the base of the dome, a basic wave was formed from the water and a surface wave went to the shore”. It became clear that it would not be possible to generate a tsunami with the help of underwater explosions - in general, the Americans were lucky. Nevertheless, even nowadays, the idea, slightly shaking off the dust, was pulled out into the light and "accidentally" shown to the press. A dome of water formed over the epicenter of the explosion. A light sultan escaped from the dome vertically upward, at the top of which a mushroom cloud began to form. At the base of the dome, a base wave formed from the water and a surface wave went to the shore. It became clear that it would not be possible to generate a tsunami with the help of underwater explosions - in general, the Americans were lucky. Nevertheless, even nowadays, the idea, slightly shaking off the dust, was pulled out into the light and "accidentally" shown to the press. Having slightly shaken off the dust, they took it out into the light and "accidentally" showed it to the press. Having slightly shaken off the dust, they took it out into the light and "accidentally" showed it to the press.
After 1990, no nuclear explosions have been carried out at the test site. But "Object 700" continues to live and work. Non-nuclear experiments are carried out here.
Human test
Having touched upon the topic of nuclear tests, one cannot fail to mention one more test site - the Totsk army test site located 200 kilometers from Orenburg. In September 1954, exercises with the real use of atomic weapons were held here. This extraordinary event, conceived by Marshal Zhukov, was held under the supervision of science, which was represented by Academician Kurchatov, who arrived at the training ground. Many other high-ranking leaders also came here, including the USSR Defense Minister Bulganin. For each of them, individual cottages were erected outside the range, and a command dugout equipped with observation and communication equipment was built 8 kilometers from the alleged explosion site. On September 14, at 9:30 am, a Tu-4 bomber accompanied by a MiG-17 fighter dropped a 40 kiloton atomic bomb over the test site. The explosion took place at an altitude of about 350 meters. From the dugout it looked like this: everything was covered with milky whiteness, for a few moments it became brighter, then a long ominous thunder rolled. A few seconds later a strong wind blew, and a blast wave passed over the dugout. Where there was a blinding radiance seconds ago, a huge mushroom, now dark red, now purple, now lilac, rose to the heavens with a heavy roar. The MiG-17 flew around it. After 15 minutes, the participants in the exercises moved to the simulated enemy through the epicenter of the explosion. The remains of crumpled equipment were scattered around - cars, tanks, guns. Not far from the epicenter, there were several sheep in a trench. Their fur was burnt, but they were alive.then a long, ominous thunder rolled. A few seconds later a strong wind blew, and a blast wave passed over the dugout. Where there was a blinding radiance seconds ago, a huge mushroom, now dark red, now purple, now lilac, rose to the heavens with a heavy roar. The MiG-17 flew around it. After 15 minutes, the participants in the exercises moved to the simulated enemy through the epicenter of the explosion. The remains of crumpled equipment were scattered around - cars, tanks, guns. Not far from the epicenter, there were several sheep in a trench. Their fur was burnt, but they were alive.then a long, ominous thunder rolled. A few seconds later a strong wind blew, and a blast wave passed over the dugout. Where there was a dazzling radiance seconds ago, a huge mushroom, now dark red, now purple, now lilac, rose to the heavens with a heavy roar. The MiG-17 flew around it. After 15 minutes, the participants in the exercises moved to the simulated enemy through the epicenter of the explosion. The remains of crumpled equipment were scattered around - cars, tanks, guns. Not far from the epicenter, there were several sheep in a trench. Their fur was burnt, but they were alive. After 15 minutes, the participants in the exercises moved to the simulated enemy through the epicenter of the explosion. The remains of crumpled equipment were scattered around - cars, tanks, guns. Not far from the epicenter, there were several sheep in a trench. Their fur was burnt, but they were alive. After 15 minutes, the participants in the exercises moved to the simulated enemy through the epicenter of the explosion. The remains of crumpled equipment were scattered all around - cars, tanks, guns. Not far from the epicenter, there were several sheep in a trench. Their fur was burnt, but they were alive.
How many people have suffered - the participants in this "bold experiment", is still unknown for certain. A non-disclosure agreement was taken from all of them, and doctors, according to instructions from above, gave the victims “wrong” diagnoses. Only 35 years later, after Chernobyl, the surviving participants of the unique exercises managed to obtain the status of victims of nuclear disasters and some compensation for the lost health.
Constantin RICHES