A couple of days ago I met a couple of Americans doing their masters work in a small village (9 families) outside Karkaraly. The woman is a historical anthropologist and the man is a geographer. They are doing studies in the Polygon, the place where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons (more on this below). We've hung out the past couple of days and this morning we took the regular jaunt up to Lake Baceen.
Now on to the good stuff- nuclear fallout and radiation! As you can see on the map below, Karkaraly (Karkaralinsk) is not far from the nuclear test sites. Between 1949 and 1989, 456 explosions were conducted in this area, including 340 underground (borehole and tunnel) bombs and 116 atmospheric (either air-drop or tower shots). I just found out a few days ago that there are different zones of radiation. Ground Zero is zone 1. The area around Ainabulak is zone 2. Egindybulak is zone 3. Karkaraly has zone 4 radiation. Basically, 40 years of nuclear tests has caused a lot of damage and people that have lived or currently live run a risk of ingesting radiation. From the two Americans, who have done many interviews and researched this subject, they have discovered that cancer and other "mutations" are much higher in this area, and are being passed on genetically to the kids. Heart problems, kidney problems, liver problems....in people that should not be having these problems (like 15 year old girls).
I've highlighted the village the two Americans are living in. By living with the people, they've observed that the Polygon, although technically "closed", is very much so open. People enter this area often and animals graze freely through the area. Livestock is the economy of this area and their meat is sold in Karkaraly and in Karaganda. People travel freely on a road that goes directly through ground zero without any controls. The Americans have been in the craters of the explosions (with proper protection of course) and discovered amazingly high levels of radiation on their Geiger counters. It's pretty wild.
I don't say this to scare anyone. It's just another piece of the puzzle of life in this area. The nuclear program isn't old news here. In fact for people in this area its still causing problems. I just learned this information and thought I would relay it on, as I found it interesting.
