Semipalatinsk Test Site
Has Kazakhstan forgotten about its Polygon test survivors?
In the nuclear arms race against the US, the former Soviet Union performed more than 450 nuclear tests in an area known as the Semipalatinsk Test Site — also known as the Polygon — from 1949 to 1989. Winds blew the nuclear fallout and radioactive dust into neighboring villages, affecting anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million people.