Semipalatinsk: the First Soviet Nuclear Blast Pride Turns to Tragedy 70 Years Later

August 29 marked the day that the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear explosion in 1949. Seventy years later, the four decades of tests at the Semipalatinsk site in Kazakhstan are seen as a tragedy in the now-independent country. People living nearby say the effects of the blasts are still being felt.

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