The Dark Legacy Of Semipalatinsk

The first Soviet nuclear test at Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949

An "atomic" lake formed from a crater remaining after a series of nuclear explosions in the Semipalatinsk region.

The village of Sarzhal, located near the Semipalatinsk nuclear field

The soil near a crater formed by a nuclear explosion still has dangerous exposure readings.

Ualikhan Serikkaliev is one of many local children born with birth defects attributed to the nuclear tests. (October 2009 photo)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) visits the museum at the Semipalatinsk test site on April 6, 2010.

An entrance to a bunker at the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev stands before a monument to the nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk in June 2009.

A giant cloud of black smoke arises as Kazakhstan's last nuclear weapons test site is put out of action with a bang in July 2000. The former Soviet republic blew up the sole remaining test tunnel at Semipalatinsk with 90 tons of explosives.