Kazakhstan: How Events 30 Years Ago Spurred Action to Halt Nuclear Testing Worldwide

Thursday, September 9, 2021
9:00am - 10:30am Washington / 4:00pm - 5:30pm Vienna / 7:00pm -8:30pm Nur-Sultan time

Thirty years ago on August 29, the main Soviet nuclear testing site, located in eastern Kazakhstan, was officially shut down. The closure was the result of a remarkable and often overlooked anti-nuclear movement that arose in opposition to Soviet nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk site. Kazakhstan's anti-nuclear movement Nevada-Semipalatinsk was linked closely with Western anti-nuclear testing movements, and together they leveraged the Soviet testing halt to advance a series of steps that would lead to the conclusion of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.

 

Opening:

HE Yerzhan Ashikbayev, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States

Speakers and topics:

Kazakhstan’s Closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site -
Togzhan Kassenova, senior fellow with the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft at the Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany, SUNY. She is the author of the forthcoming book Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (Stanford Press, Feb. 2022)

The impact of Kazakhstan’s anti-nuclear movement on the global anti-nuclear movement -
Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, International Physicians Against Nuclear War Canada

The impact of the closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site on the Soviet and U.S. moratoriums on nuclear testing, and subsequent opening for signature of the CTBT -
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director, Arms Control Association

Moderator:
Dr. Francesca Giovannini, Executive Director, Managing the Atom project at the Belfer Center, Harvard University and author of “The CTBT at 25 and Beyond” in the September issue of Arms Control Today

Following comments from the speakers, there will be a question-and-answer session.

Cohosted by the Arms Control Association, the Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany, SUNY and the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the United States