Kazakhstan and weapons of mass destruction

The Republic of Kazakhstan, once a republic of the Soviet Union, was a primary venue for Soviet nuclear weapon testing from 1949 until 1989.^[1] Following the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, Kazakhstan became the fourth-largest nuclear power (following Ukraine) in the world and hosted a considerably large weapon support infrastructure due to its reliance on the Soviet nuclear program as a means to develop its own local economy.^[2] Besides the nuclear program, Kazakhstan was also a prominent site of Soviet programs of biological (only Biopreparat outside of Russia) and chemical weapons.^[3]

The former Soviet Union conducted indiscriminate nuclear testing on a large scale with very little regard to environmental concerns and public health safety at the Semipalatinsk-21 (test site) that has caused numerous health issues for the local Kazakh population.^[4] The Nevada Semipalatinsk movement helped report the cancer-related issues which are examined through the inhabitants living and exposed to villages around Semipalatinsk.^[4]

Due to concerns relating to spread of cancer to the local Kazakh population, Kazakhstan declared its independence from the Soviet alliance on December 16, 1991 (being the last Soviet republic to do so) and engaged in rapid denuclearization with help from the United States.^[4] Over the years, Kazakhstan cooperated with Russia in returning all 1,400 active nuclear warheads as it took a leading role in declaring the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.^[5]^[2] In 2017, Kazakhstan voted for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and ratified it in 2021.

^ See Soviet nuclear testing in 1989. All final nuclear tests were in Semipalatinsk-21 in 1989. Thereafter, all Soviet weapons tests were conducted in Russia in 1990; one active nuclear warhead was left behind in an abandoned shaft in Kazakhstan in 1990.
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[1] See Soviet nuclear testing in 1989. All final nuclear tests were in Semipalatinsk-21 in 1989. Thereafter, all Soviet weapons tests were conducted in Russia in 1990; one active nuclear warhead was left behind in an abandoned shaft in Kazakhstan in 1990.

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