The ATOM Project (est. August 2012) is an international campaign by the Nazarbayev Center of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. The primary goal of the campaign is to build international support for the abolishment of

nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of Nuclear explosion, their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to si ...

. ATOM stands for "Abolish Testing. Our Mission." The goal is to achieve in force the

Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nat ...

through online petitions and other methods.

History and post-test experiments in Kazakhstan

The campaign is an initiative of the Nazarbayev Center whose mission includes the "promotion of nuclear responsibility, nuclear disarmament, and nuclear nonproliferation according to the vision of President

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakhstani politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the Security Council of ...

(Kazakhstan)." Kazakhstan has historically been concerned about nuclear issues because of the

Semipalatinsk Test Site The Semipalatinsk Test Site or Semipalatinsk-21 (; ), also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located in Zhanasemey District, Abai Region, Kazakhstan, south of the valley of the Ir ...

, which is where the first Soviet nuclear weapon was exploded in 1949, with 456 more to follow (overall 90 air, 26 land, 354 underground) until 1989, it was the primary Soviet nuclear test site.

Project promotion

In 2013, the ATOM Project began a world tour visiting Moscow, New York City, Washington, D.C., Vienna, Berlin, Madrid, and Tokyo. On September 4, 2013, the ATOM Project presented their project to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

headquarters in New York City along the framework of International Day against Nuclear Testing. On September 11, they presented the project at the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

Northern Virginia Community College Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC and, informally, NOVA) is a public community college with six campuses and four centers in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. It is the third-largest multi-campus community college in t ...

, and the Embassy of Kazakhstan. The project visited Vienna on October 30 presenting to the Kazakhstan Student Society and the governing body of the

. On May 6, 2014, the five largest nuclear powers signed a guarantee not to use nuclear weapons in the territory of Central Asia. The powers: Britain, China, Russia, USA and France signed the 'Protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia' (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the closure of Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk Test Site, where the Soviet Union conducted extensive nuclear tests over four decades. On August 29, 2016, Astana hosted plenary session of international conference "Building a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World." The keynote speakers included President Nazarbayev, Chairman of the Senate Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the CTBTO Lassina Zerbo. The main outcome of the conference was the adoption of the declaration "The Astana Vision: From a Radioactive Haze to a Nuclear-Weapon Free World." The conference was held to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk testing site.

Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov

The "Honorary Ambassador" for the campaign is the artist and painter Karipbek Kuyukov (b. 1968) who was born without arms and experienced many nuclear tests as a child. He became a renowned artist painting with his mouth and feet and an internationally recognised anti-nuclear weapons activist. In May 2016, he opened his first exhibition in Astana. Kuyukov and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev were nominated in 2017 for the Nobel Peace Prize.

References

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External links

Atom Project
official website
Documentary
by the Atom Project (10 minutes) Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Anti–nuclear weapons movement 2012 establishments in Kazakhstan