Not so long ago Kazakhstan commemorated the 20th anniversary of closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. It is located on the border of East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and Karaganda oblasts, about 130 km northwest of Semey city.

The main attraction of the area is “atomic” lake, which is located at the test site “Balapan”. It was formed in the explosion of a thermonuclear warhead of 140 kilotons of power in 1965.

The diameter of the lake is 500 meters; depth from the surface to the bottom is about 80 meters. In a similar way the Soviet strategists planned to build water reservoirs in arid regions of the Soviet Union. Photos by Grigory Bedenko for voxpopuli.kz

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Tags: East Kazakhstan oblast · Karaganda oblast · Pavlodar oblast · Semipalatinsk nuclear test site