In 1947, the Soviet authorities designated a large area of steppe near the city of Semipalatinsk (today's Semey) for the mining and processing of uranium, manufacture and testing of nuclear warheads, demolition of missile units and burial of…

Before the 1960s, the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers ran northwest through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and drained into the vast fresh-water lake of the Aral Sea. A strip of arable land lay immediately adjacent to the rivers, with pasture land further…