Package tour Kazakhstan Altay.

"The happiness only is given to travellers"

 Short description of a route on Semipalatinsk nuclear test site: 

Semey (Semipalatinsk) -  Kyzimshek (Tshcherbakovka) village - Kokentau (Znamenka) village - Shagan river - Balapan test site - test site Telkem Atomic lake (Atom-Kol) - Semey.

Distance of route: 232 km.
Season: from May, 10st till September, 30th.
 Best time for travel: May, June - August.
Duration of tour: 1 day.

 Detailed program on lake Atomic: 

Guided walking tour in Semipalatinsk.

Transfer: Semey - Semeytau mountains - Kyzyshek (Shcherbakovka) village - Kokentau (Znamenka) village - Shagan river - Balapan test site – test site Telkem (Atomic lake) (116 km).
After the town of Semey, our path goes southwest, after about 44 kilometers we pass not high mountains of Semeytau, which stretch in the meridional direction, for 49 kilometers. We pass the village of Kokentau, in the vicinity of the tract Ortashat, the road turns to the north-west, after 14 kilometers we pass the bridge over the Shagan River, we leave the grader and turn south to the Atomic Lake.
Here we are already on the territory of the Balapan test site. Arrival at the lake, which is located on the Telkem test site, on which only 2 underground explosions were carried out with the release of soil for the construction of reservoirs.
The Balapan test site is located in the southeast direction from the town of Kurchatov, on the left bank of the Shagan River. The total landfill area was 100 square kilometers. It was used for underground testing of nuclear devices with a capacity of up to 120 kt in wells (vertical mine workings) and for individual tests with a capacity of up to 150 kt. A vertical well is a mine with a depth of 30 to 600 meters. The test charge drops to the bottom of the well. At the Balapan site, 107 charge tests were performed.
For 40 years, from 1949 to 1989, 473 nuclear explosions were carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site, including 90 air, 26 ground, 354 underground. In addition to nuclear tests, 175 explosions using chemicals were carried out here, 44 of them with charges of more than ten tons.
The Atomic lake is located on the Balapan test site; it was formed as a result of an experimental explosion to create a reservoir. On January 15, 1965, at 05.59 hours GMT, at the confluence of the Shagan and Aschysu rivers, in well No. 1004, at a depth of 178 meters, the Chagan experimental industrial underground nuclear explosion was carried out
The capacity was 140 kt (equivalent to 2,000  coach wagon), as a result of which a funnel was formed with a depth of 100 meters, a diameter of 400 meters and a volume of 6 million cubic meters with a bulk of soil 20 - 30 meters high, which blocked the channel of the Shagan River.
In March and April 1965, a canal was created using chemical explosives, connecting the channel of the Shagan River with a funnel, where an atomic explosion was fired. As a result of the tests, two bodies of water formed - the inner one due to the filling of the explosion funnel (Atomic Lake) and the outer one (Shagan Lake) - the floodplains of the Shagan and Aschysu rivers. Later, a stone and earthen dam with culverts was built here.
During the atomic explosion, pieces of clay and soil spilled out of the crater, which rose to a height of up to 1 kilometer. At present (2016), the depth of the lake is 80 meters, the diameter is 444 meters, and the length of the coastline is 1480 meters.
In the southern part, the Atomic Lake is connected by a 188-meter channel with Lake Shagan, into which on the south side flows the river Aschysu. The Shagan River flows north through the dam of Lake Shagan.
In the future, it was planned in Kazakhstan with the help of nuclear explosions to create about 40 artificial reservoirs with a total volume of 120 - 140 million cubic meters. Around the lake there are huge hills, gigantic heaps of land, the results of the release of underground soil after the explosion.
To the side of the lake there are separate pieces of huge stones - “bombs”, everything that was thrown from the depths of the earth by the energy of an explosion. It resembles the effects of a volcanic eruption. After the explosion, these stone "bombs" were pristine and intact, and only eventually swam away, collapsed, and some left piles of colored earth.
Using the example of these emissions, one can try to unravel the geological epochs of the structure of the earth. On the opposite side of the lake, on the slope, emissions of colored rocks similar to clay are visible.
An Atomic lake, almost perfect rounded, connected by a small strait to Lake Shagan. You might think that this is a volcano filled with water. Atomic explosions also give rise to volcanic lakes. In the vicinity of the lake there are many different pipes sticking out of the ground.
Nearby is a small grove of poplars. A road has been laid along the southern shore of the lake, which leads to a dam and a reservoir.
A visit to the lake, a walk in the vicinity. The end of the walk, transfer to Semey (116 km).

The note:
 The author program is Alexander Petrov. Copying and use - from the sanction of the author.

Photos by:
 Alexander Petrov.