The agency is also responsible for testing of nuclear charges, for ecological safety of such testing, and for maintenance of Soviet/Russian testing grounds, known in Russian as “polygons” – in Semipalatinsk (Semipalatinsk Test Site, now Kazakhstan) and on Novaya Zemlya Archipelago.
Bakhytzhan was an active member of Nuclear disarmament movement and together with Olzhas Suleimenov was one of the founders of "Nevada-Semei" movement which ultimate aim was to close the nuclear test centers in Semipalatinsk and Nevada.
It consisted of four or five provinces: Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Turgai, Uralsk and from 1882 to 1899 Semirechensk, having a total area of 855,000 square kilometers and a total population of 3,454,000 (both including Semirechensk) in 1897.
The Shulbinsk Hydro Power Plant (Шульбинская ГЭС) is a hydro power plant on the middle reach of the Irtysh River, 70 km up the stream from Semipalatinsk in East Kazakhstan Province of Kazakhstan.
He toured an exhibition of photographs taken in Semipalatinsk by his friend the actress and photographer Kimberley Joseph from the Scottish Parliament, to the European Parliament, the UK Department for International Development, the United Nations headquarters in New York and finally, to Almaty, Astana and Semipalatinsk itself in Kazakhstan.
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Struan donated the entire $50,000 to Mercy Corps Scotland to assist with their work in Semipalatinsk.