Decades of Weapons Testing in Kazakhstan Has Left a Legacy of Poor Health That Researchers and Residents Are Still Grappling With

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IN THE SHADOW OF NUCLEAR SINS Decades of weapons testing in Kazakhstan has left a legacy of poor health that researchers and residents are still grappling with.

BY WUDAN YAN

he statues of Lenin are weathered and pounded an 18,500-square-kilometre patch has found little evidence that the health effects some are tagged with graffiti, but they of land known as the Polygon with more than are passed on across generations. still stand tall in the parks of Semey, 110 above-ground nuclear tests. Kazakh health People living near the Polygon were exposed a small industrial city tucked in the authorities estimate that up to 1.5 million not only to acute bursts, but also to low doses Tnortheast steppe of Kazakhstan. All around people were exposed to fallout in the process. of radiation over the course of decades. Kazakh the city, boxy Soviet-era cars and buses lurch Underground tests continued until 1989. researchers have been collecting data on those PHIL HATCHER-MOORE past tall brick apartment buildings and cracked Much of what’s known about the health who lived through the detonations, as well as walkways, relics of a previous regime. impacts of radiation comes from studies of acute their children and their children’s children. Other traces of the past are harder to see. exposure — for example, the atomic blasts that The effects aren’t always obvious or easy to Folded into the city’s history — into the very levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan or trace. But researchers are now starting to see DNA of its people — is the legacy of the the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine. some subtle impacts that linger 30 years after cold war. The Semipalatinsk Test Site, about Studies of those events provided grim lessons the Polygon closed. Studies show elevated risks 150 kilometres west of Semey, was the anvil on the effects of high-level exposure, as well as of cancer, and one published in the past year on which the Soviet Union forged its nuclear the lingering impacts on the environment and suggests that the effects of radiation on cardio arsenal. Between 1949 and 1963, the Soviets people who were exposed. Such work, however, vascular health might be passed down from one

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Berik Syzdykov at generation to the next. his home in Semey, Even as they BLASTS FROM Kazakhstan. He was High winds spread tease out health THE PAST fallout from the born with anomalies impacts from the Between 1949 and 1963, the Polygon in di erent after his mother was Soviet Union detonated more directions. data, researchers in than 110 nuclear weapons above Beskaraai exposed to radioactive Kazakhstan also have ground at Semipalatinsk Test fallout while pregnant. to navigate the fear Site (the Polygon) delivering a 29 Auust total explosive yield 400 times 1949 RUSSIA that has gripped resi- that of the bomb dropped at dents living in the fallout zone. People blame Hiroshima. One estimate the tests for a range of problems. But these links suggests that just four of these Seey tests contributed 95% of the are not always supported by evidence. Under- collective radiation exposure Ust-Kaenoorsk standing the testing’s dark legacy remains of to the local population. 24 Auust 1956 utmost importance for the families still seeking Semipalatinsk Sarzhal 12 Auust health-care assistance from the Kazakh govern- est Site ment. The latest genetic technologies, such as 1953 KAZAKHSTAN next-generation sequencing, could assist in this 24 Septeber Karaul process. And by improving understanding of 1951 the risks from long-term exposure, research Eposure in Kazakhstan could help to inform current dose (roentens) CHINA

debates about proposals to expand nuclear 50 k power to reduce carbon emissions. 0.1 0.5 1 5 10 60 “The Polygon tests were a great tragedy,” says Talgat Muldagaliev, deputy director of Yield: 22 kt 38 kt 400 kt 27 kt the Scientific Research Institute for Radia- First nuclear New design First Soviet test of a Health clinic All tests tion Medicine and Ecology in Semey, “but test at the nearly doubled thermonuclear device; established after conducted we can’t go back. Now we need to study the Polygon. the yield of considered the most hundreds hospitalized underground original Soviet damaging to human with radiation sickness. after 1963 consequences.” bomb. health. Limited Test Ban Treaty. DEADLY EXPOSURE 1,6 kt Valentina Nikonchik was playing outside in 1958–61 Semey on 12 August 1953 when she heard a Testin oratoriu

SOURCES: PLUME: HTTPS://GO.NATURE.COM/2V3MR7; HTTPS://GO.NATURE.COM/2V3MR7; PLUME: SOURCES: HTTPS://GO.NATURE.COM/2OYFBJT TESTS: deafening boom, fell to the ground and fainted. 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 She had witnessed the first detonation at the Polygon of a thermonuclear device, a second- more than 600 residents in the industrial Moscow sent a special committee to Semey generation nuclear weapon releasing a force city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, approximately to open up the dispensary. Some records were equivalent to 400 kilotonnes of TNT — more 400 kilometres east of the test site, to be rushed destroyed. Other classified files were returned to than 25 times the power of the bomb dropped to the hospital with radiation sickness. There Moscow. Even today’s researchers are unaware at Hiroshima. The 1953 nuclear test is consid- are no records of how many people in the city of what those records contained. The dispensary ered to be the most damaging at the Polygon died as a result. was renamed the Scientific Research Institute in terms of human exposure (see ‘Blasts from Radiation is also problematic for rapidly of Radiation Medicine and Ecology (IRME), the past’). dividing cells, such as those in developing which inherited the remaining classified health- Up to that point, the Soviet Army had fetuses. Women near the Polygon who were data files. In addition to continuing epidemio- already been conducting tests at the site for exposed to radiation were more likely to give logical studies on the effects of nuclear radiation four years. They had dropped bombs from air- birth to children with chromosomal diseases, on human health, the IRME has a small clinic craft and platforms to study the effects of blasts including Down’s syndrome and congenital for treating people whose family members were on buildings, bridges, vehicles and livestock. disabilities1. affected by tests, and a mobile medical unit. But they were either ignorant of, or indifferent But for others, the effects might not show for Over the years, those who sought care from to the idea that the high winds on the exposed years or decades. That was the case for Nikon- Dispensary No. 4 or the IRME were logged in Kazakh steppe might carry fallout into neigh- chik. Years after the blast knocked her over, the state’s medical registry, which tracks the bouring communities. In 1963, representatives she found out that she had heart disease and health of people exposed to the Polygon tests. of the Soviet Union signed the Limited Test thyroid issues that she and her doctors think People are grouped by generation and by how Ban Treaty, which ended above-ground test- are linked to the tests. “Back then, when I was much radiation they received, on the basis of ing. The underground tests that continued up a kid, we weren’t thinking about the effects on where they lived. Although the registry does to 1989 might have contributed to some expo- health that this testing could have,” she said. not include every person who was affected, sure risks, but the atmospheric tests during the After the August 1956 test that caused radia- at one point it listed more than 351,000 indi- Polygon’s first 14 years are considered the most tion sickness in residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk, viduals across 3 generations. More than one- dangerous in terms of acute exposure. the Soviet military established a top-secret third of these have died, and many others Absorbed doses of radiation are often medical clinic to care for those in need and to have migrated or lost contact. But accord- measured in grays. High doses, starting at serve as a base of operations for researchers ing to Muldagaliev, about 10,000 people about 1 gray, are enough to kill cells and dam- collecting health data on those who had been have been continually observed since 1962. age tissues. People exposed above this level exposed. To hide its purpose, the army named it Researchers consider the registry an impor- frequently get radiation sickness, a condition Anti-Brucellosis Dispensary No. 4, after a bac- tant and relatively unexplored resource for characterized by vomiting, diarrhoea or bleed- terial disease spread by farm animals. Those understanding the effects of long-term and ing. Depending on the exposure and the extent who sought out medical care were examined, low-dose radiation2. of cell death, people can die within hours to but were never told exactly what was wrong. Geneticists have been able to use these weeks of being irradiated. In August 1956, In 1991, following Kazakhstan’s independ- remaining records to investigate the genera- an above-ground test at the Polygon caused ence from the Soviet Union, officials from tional effects of radiation. In the late 1990s,

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Kazakh researchers went to Beskaragai, a town multigenerational cardiovascular risk has not says Muldagaliev, “but in the case of radiation, in the periphery of the Polygon that had been been clearly established in populations whose that end is still unknown.” heavily irradiated. They collected blood samples parents and grandparents were affected by from 40 families, each spanning three genera- the blasts at Hiroshima or Nagasaki, says Jim INVISIBLE LEGACY tions, and sent them to Yuri Dubrova at the Uni- Smith, a radiation researcher at the University Cheerful sculptures made from car tyres greet versity of Leicester, UK, for analysis. Dubrova, of Portsmouth, UK. visitors to a two-storey orphanage tucked away a geneticist, specializes in studying the impact The difference could come down to the in a residential part of Semey. On the first floor of environmental factors on the germ line, the pattern of exposure. With long-term, low-dose is a room with cream-orange-coloured walls DNA found in sperm and eggs that can be radiation, cells will accumulate mutations as that caretakers call the Sunshine Room. Inside, passed on to offspring. He was intrigued to they constantly try to repair the damage done a three-year-old boy named Artur rolls on the study the Polygon families, to start unpicking to their DNA. Bernd Grosche, a retired radia- floor and slowly fumbles his way into a chair — the appearance of mutations across generations. tion epidemiologist formerly with Germany’s he’s had three corrective operations that have just In 2002, Dubrova and his colleagues reported Federal Office for Radiation Protection in Ober- about enabled him to walk. His older brother, that the mutation rate in the germ lines of those born with hydrocephaly (excess fluid in the who had been directly exposed was nearly brain, which enlarges the head), was left at the twice that found in controls3. The effects con- “Every catastrophe has a same orphanage but has since been transferred. tinued in subsequent generations that had not In a nearby cradle lies Maria, a two-year-old who been directly exposed to the blasts. Their chil- beginning and end, but in cannot walk, crawl or sit up. She snorts and gasps dren had a 50% higher rate of germline muta- when she cries, as if struggling to breathe. The tion than controls had. Dubrova thinks that if the case of radiation, that caretakers don’t know exactly what’s wrong with researchers can establish the pattern of muta- end is still unknown.” her, or whether she will live to adulthood. tion in the offspring of irradiated parents, then The children with disabilities who have there could be a way to predict the long-term, passed through this facility and others around intergenerational health risks. “That’s the next schleissheim, says that’s why it is important to the region are often presented as a visible challenge,” he says. “We think techniques like look at populations that have received different reminder of the Polygon’s legacy. Many of next-generation sequencing could potentially kinds of exposure, to understand the full extent the eight children in the Sunshine Room in provide us with real information about the of the effects on human health. With the avail- November had parents who grew up in highly impact of human mutations.” ability of the registry in Kazakhstan, Grosche irradiated villages, says Raikhan Smagulova, says, it would be negligent not to analyse it. a caretaker at the orphanage. And some doc- HEART OF THE MATTER But studying environmentally exposed tors have recommended that adults who have When Zhanar Mukhamedzhanova was 19, she populations is challenging, says Cari Kitahara, been exposed to radiation abstain from hav- started feeling weak at work. She thought it was a cancer epidemiologist at the National Can- ing children. But there is scant evidence and strange — her job as an accountant wasn’t very cer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, mostly much debate as to whether past exposures labour intensive — so she went for a check-up because of the need to collect detailed expo- contribute to severe congenital disorders. It is at a regional clinic in Semey. Her systolic blood sure data on a large number of individuals. a question, like so many others in Semey, that pressure was above 160, fairly high by medi- Kitahara is studying the effects of radiation on requires more research and will be challenging cal standards. Although Mukhamedzhanova the health of medical radiation technicians, in to answer definitively, says Muldagaliev. has lived most of her adult life in the city, she whom exposure is easier to track. Others are For many residents of the region, the effects spent her earlier years in the Abai region, an studying uranium miners and nuclear workers, will probably be less visible than congenital inhabited area close to the Polygon that was who are exposed to low doses of radiation over disabilities. But they might be more insidious, one of the most heavily contaminated by the time. Whereas many radiation technicians are troubling generations to come with poor health. nuclear tests. Both her parents witnessed the women, and most miners and nuclear workers The focus that others, including researchers tests at first hand; her father died from a stroke are men, the Polygon population is remarkable and film-makers, have placed on the legacy of at 41 and her mother died from heart issues in that it represents the general population. the Polygon over the years is a double-edged at 70. Mukhamedzhanova’s older sister has One of the biggest challenges of studying the sword. It brings international attention to the high blood pressure, and her younger sister effects of radiation on health is that it’s often plight of those affected by radiation. But it also has cardiac insufficiency, a condition in which difficult to attribute a particular health issue engenders stigma, Semenova says. For some, the heart is too weak to send enough blood solely to radiation, says Yuliya Semenova, a the negative attention can be stifling: rather around the body. Although such issues are researcher at Semey State Medical Univer- than being known as the birthplace of some relatively common in the general population, sity who studies the generational effects of of Kazakhstan’s most famous poets and artists, there is some evidence that the incidence in the Polygon tests. Because cancer and high Semey is known mostly for its dark past. those exposed to radiation, and their offspring, blood pressure are common maladies, cohort “It’s a stamp on the city,” says Symbat might be higher. studies — which typically follow a popula- Abdykarimova, a neuropathologist at the For instance, last November, Lyudmila tion over time — can help to tease out what orphanage. “We want to feel proud of Semey, Pivina at Semey State Medical University and specific factors might contribute to them, she since we live here. But many international her colleagues found that long-term, low-dose says. Semenova and her colleagues plan to use journalists come and want to talk about the radiation can lead to cardiovascular problems the registry to develop epidemiological stud- Polygon. We’re trying to avoid a situation such as high blood pressure. They looked ies that can better elucidate the connection where we are only known for that.” ■ at health outcomes in approximately 1,800 between radiation and disease. people, including second- and third-genera- Researchers who study the Polygon popula- Wudan Yan is a journalist in Seattle, tion Polygon survivors. When they focused tion, however, don’t yet know the full extent Washington. on individuals whose parents lived in areas of the damage that long-term and low-dose 1. Sviatova, G. S., Abil’dinova, G. Zh. & Berezina, G. M. that were exposed to radiation from 1949 to radiation can inflict on human health. And [in Russian] Genetika 37, 1696–1704 (2001). 1989, they found that the risks of hyperten- the more time passes, the more difficult it can 2. Apsalikov, K. N. et al. Radiat. Environ. Biophys. 58, 1–11 (2019). sion went up in correlation with the amount become to tease out the effects of radiation 3. Dubrova, Y. E. et al. Science 295, 1037 (2002). of radiation someone’s parents received — a from those of other environmental factors. 4. Markabayeva, A. et al. Environ. Res. 167, 129–135 discovery that they found surprising4. This “Every catastrophe has a beginning and end,” (2018).