4 Susanne Bauer and Tanja Penter
took shape between civilian and military pursuits of nuclear technologies –
well between precarious working conditions and little occupational hazards
response and a technoscientific nuclear utopia of a nuclear-powered and thus
energy-abundant urban landscape (Guth). At the nuclear processing facilities
such as in the Southern Urals, professionals in radiation protection, medical
staff, and scientists were dealing with everyday burdens and damage and
had to come up with ad-hoc responses in case of minor and major radiation
accidents in the plutonium plants (Nikonova, Sembritzki). The testing of a
total of 715 nuclear devices continued until 1989, mainly at the two nuclear
test sites near Semipalatinsk and in Novaya Zemlya. 10 Especially the aboveground nuclear explosions between 1949 and 1965 deposited local and global
fallout leading to persistent anthropogenic traces in the environment (Bauer).
With this volume we zoom in on the Soviet atomic programs during the
Cold War and beyond, focusing on nuclear sites that are much less known,
compared to the more broadly researched Chernobyl accident of 1986 or the
Fukushima-Daiichi disaster of 2011. 11 This book brings to the fore nuclear
infrastructures, from uranium mining and the envisioned nuclear fuels cycle,
as well as its visions to fuel socialist modernity and a military complex justified
as a requirement for peacebuilding. In line with nuclear modernity’s visions
of energy abundance, the Soviet civil nuclear energy program launched a
nuclear-powered model city of Shevchenko/Aktau in today’s Republic of
Kazakhstan (Guth). For four decades, the Soviet atomic weapons program
conducted nuclear testing near Semipalatinsk/Semey in the eastern region of
today’s Kazakhstan (Bauer).
Indeed, the supply chain of nuclear projects in the USSR starts with uranium mining. In addition to Central Asian sites such as Leninabad/Khujand in
Tajikistan and Mailuu Suu in Kyrgyzstan, the USSR obtained uranium from
the Wismut sites in East Germany, and from Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria
as early as 1949–1951, before the first nuclear reactor for energy opened in
Obninsk (110 km south-west of Moscow) in 1954. 12 A key part of the nuclear
supply chain was channeled through the Southern Urals nuclear weapons
complex, including the Mayak plutonium production plants (Nikonova,
Sembritzki). Following the production chain, this volume addresses the
uranium processing and plutonium production sites and pertinent radiation
expertise at the Southern Urals nuclear facilities. The enriched uranium and
plutonium from these facilities were then, after warhead design and assembly
in Arzamas-16 (Sarov), 13 brought to the nuclear test sites in Kazakhstan and
Novaya Zemlya, where they were “tested” and detonated. Nuclear test explosions, especially atmospheric nuclear tests as conducted between 1949 and
1963, led to heavy local radioactive fallout, but also contributed to significant
global radioactive fallout as well. Outside the two major test sites, so-called
civil nuclear explosions were carried out; these included at least 15 sites in
Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Sometimes these “peaceful nuclear explosions” were used in mining, oil and natural gas industries,
to create underground storage and crush ore, and even used to extinguish
took shape between civilian and military pursuits of nuclear technologies –
well between precarious working conditions and little occupational hazards
response and a technoscientific nuclear utopia of a nuclear-powered and thus
energy-abundant urban landscape (Guth). At the nuclear processing facilities
such as in the Southern Urals, professionals in radiation protection, medical
staff, and scientists were dealing with everyday burdens and damage and
had to come up with ad-hoc responses in case of minor and major radiation
accidents in the plutonium plants (Nikonova, Sembritzki). The testing of a
total of 715 nuclear devices continued until 1989, mainly at the two nuclear
test sites near Semipalatinsk and in Novaya Zemlya. 10 Especially the aboveground nuclear explosions between 1949 and 1965 deposited local and global
fallout leading to persistent anthropogenic traces in the environment (Bauer).
With this volume we zoom in on the Soviet atomic programs during the
Cold War and beyond, focusing on nuclear sites that are much less known,
compared to the more broadly researched Chernobyl accident of 1986 or the
Fukushima-Daiichi disaster of 2011. 11 This book brings to the fore nuclear
infrastructures, from uranium mining and the envisioned nuclear fuels cycle,
as well as its visions to fuel socialist modernity and a military complex justified
as a requirement for peacebuilding. In line with nuclear modernity’s visions
of energy abundance, the Soviet civil nuclear energy program launched a
nuclear-powered model city of Shevchenko/Aktau in today’s Republic of
Kazakhstan (Guth). For four decades, the Soviet atomic weapons program
conducted nuclear testing near Semipalatinsk/Semey in the eastern region of
today’s Kazakhstan (Bauer).
Indeed, the supply chain of nuclear projects in the USSR starts with uranium mining. In addition to Central Asian sites such as Leninabad/Khujand in
Tajikistan and Mailuu Suu in Kyrgyzstan, the USSR obtained uranium from
the Wismut sites in East Germany, and from Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria
as early as 1949–1951, before the first nuclear reactor for energy opened in
Obninsk (110 km south-west of Moscow) in 1954. 12 A key part of the nuclear
supply chain was channeled through the Southern Urals nuclear weapons
complex, including the Mayak plutonium production plants (Nikonova,
Sembritzki). Following the production chain, this volume addresses the
uranium processing and plutonium production sites and pertinent radiation
expertise at the Southern Urals nuclear facilities. The enriched uranium and
plutonium from these facilities were then, after warhead design and assembly
in Arzamas-16 (Sarov), 13 brought to the nuclear test sites in Kazakhstan and
Novaya Zemlya, where they were “tested” and detonated. Nuclear test explosions, especially atmospheric nuclear tests as conducted between 1949 and
1963, led to heavy local radioactive fallout, but also contributed to significant
global radioactive fallout as well. Outside the two major test sites, so-called
civil nuclear explosions were carried out; these included at least 15 sites in
Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Sometimes these “peaceful nuclear explosions” were used in mining, oil and natural gas industries,
to create underground storage and crush ore, and even used to extinguish