A Moscow scientist, VLADIMIR YAKIMETS is among the leaders of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, which campaigns for an end to the testing of nuclear weapons. He was interviewed by Green Left Weekly Moscow correspondent RENFREY CLARKE.
How did you become involved in the fight against nuclear testing?
I'd been involved earlier in studying environmental problems, including the rise in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and I'd helped construct macro-economic models relating to global environmental questions. I became active in the anti-nuclear movement in 1988, by which time I working in the Institute of Systems Research.
Who established the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, and what were the circumstances?
For many years few people in this country even knew that a nuclear test site existed near Semipalatinsk in north-eastern Kazakhstan — everything about the site was a closely guarded secret. Then after an atomic test in 1985, a military pilot flew over an area near the testing site, and his dose-meter went off the scale. He contacted the Kazakh writer and public figure Olzhas Suleiman, who had a regular television program in the Kazakh capital, Alma Ata. For the first time it was publicly revealed that underground nuclear explosions were occurring at the site.
A protest meeting was called, and several thousand people attended, spilling out onto the street. They knew they might well have been exposed to radiation themselves, so they were very anxious to put an end to this danger. Out of this meeting a committee was born, headed by a group of intellectuals. The organisation quickly came to include a broad range of people — shepherds, doctors, housewives and miners. The Karaganda coal mines, with 130,000 workers, are affiliated to the movement.
How many people live in the Semipalatinsk region, and what do they work at?
The region is lightly populated, but it's by no means empty. The climate is semi-arid, and the main industries are stock-raising and mining. The largest population centre, with about 330,000 people, is Semipalatinsk; the test site is about 200 kilometres to the west of the city.
What's been the history of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk?
The first explosion took place there in 1949. The major nuclear powers have gone through the same stages in their nuclear tests: first surface testing, then explosions higher in the atmosphere, and finally underground explosions. At an international conference in 1991 it was revealed that there had been a total of 467 explosions at the Semipalatinsk test site, of which 116 were above ground; the last of these was in 1963. There are now three points in the test area where the contamination is especially bad — here the level of background radiation reaches 100 times the permissible level. At one of these places a "peaceful" test in 1965 created a new lake. This was an experiment to test out the idea that a series of such explosions could be used to turn around the northern rivers. Not surprisingly, the lake is highly radioactive.
Most of the underground tests took place at a depth of 600 metres, and created caverns which filled with radioactive water. When we began studying the tests, we asked: were there any data on the contamination of ground water? We didn't find any, and it turned out that no-one had ever performed such research. Now we find that the quantities of radioactive salts in fissure water in the test region exceed the maximum permissible levels by 100 times.
What effect has the testing had on the local population?
When our movement began its work, there were no reliable, independent studies of the medical consequences. It was clear, though, that hundreds of thousands of people had been exposed to radiation far above normal background levels. After the early above-ground tests, for example, nearby residents who had been evacuated from their villages were allowed back when radiation levels were still as high as 40-60 milliroentgens per hour. In one case, residents of a village 100 kilometres from the test site were allowed back to their homes eight hours after an explosion. These people later told how they saw the skin peel off dogs and sheep.
It's now well established that the effects of the testing include sharply higher cancer rates among the people of the region. This is especially true for the areas nearest to the test site. The incidence of cancer of the lungs and digestive tract is particularly high. Since the 1950s, infant mortality rates in the city of Semipalatinsk have consistently been above those in similar centres not exposed to radiation.
As recently as February 1989 there was a bad case of contamination of surrounding villages following an underground test. No one can be absolutely certain where the wind is going to blow after a nuclear explosion. After a number of tests, a trail of radioactive fallout was detected extending as far as the Altai region in the Russian republic.
What are the goals your movement is campaigning around?
The movement set itself five basic tasks: to bring a halt to testing, to restore the surrounding environment, to study the health of the population and win compensation for those who have suffered, to join in campaigns against testing in other regions, and to bring about the conversion of nuclear testing facilities so that they serve peaceful purposes.
We've now achieved the first of these goals, at least at Semipalatinsk; the final test there took place in 1990. We have a concept of using three types of diplomacy — "people's diplomacy", holding all the meetings, demonstrations and so on that are possible; "parliamentary diplomacy", nominating our own deputies, proposing legislation, and campaigning for access to information; and "expert diplomacy". An example of the latter is our collaboration with who have been campaigning against nuclear testing in Nevada.
What are your movement's main activities at the moment?
We've established a committee called Radiation, Environment, Health. Twelve groups of independent experts have joined it. They're studying the question of radiation and the environment, including aspects such as ground water contamination, the genetic consequences of exposure to radiation, surveys of the health of the population and so on.
We've held a number of actions around the demand for access to archival materials; we've now obtained many of these materials and we're analysing them. We also want to draft a law to provide compensation to the victims of nuclear testing. Also, it's essential to take clean-up measures, since there's a danger of genetic changes. Chromosome tests are already revealing damage. The nation is in a state of genetic stress.
Are nuclear weapons tests continuing at other sites?
They're occurring in the Arctic, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. In October Yeltsin issued a decree halting tests on Novaya Zemlya, but now he's issued another decree counteracting this.
I'm a member of the executive of an organisation called "To Novaya Zemlya", which was formed in Archangel last December.One of the aims of this organisation is to coordinate activity with anti-nuclear groups working to shut down other testing sites.
I've collaborated with colleagues from Berkeley in the US in drawing up the charter for a Global Anti-Nuclear Alliance. The document sums up the focus of this organisation as follows: Nevada, Novaya Zemlya, Semipalatinsk, Moruroa, Lop Nor — the major nuclear testing sites of our time.