Fallout

Semey, Kazakhstan

TEARS glint in the eyes of Melgis Metov, a tall Kazakh who was once a tough platoon leader in the Soviet army and later an instructor in physics. Melgis is now the mainstay of a small group of seriously ill “atomic soldiers” whose number is declining with tragic rapidity. Some 5,000 Kazakh troops served in the Semipalatinsk (now Semey) Polygon, an area of just over 7,000 square miles where the USSR developed its nuclear weapons. Some 40 atomic soldiers are still alive. But not for long. Radiation sicknesses are killing them.

Semey, Kazakhstan

TEARS glint in the eyes of Melgis Metov, a tall Kazakh who was once a tough platoon leader in the Soviet army and later an instructor in physics. Melgis is now the mainstay of a small group of seriously ill “atomic soldiers” whose number is declining with tragic rapidity. Some 5,000 Kazakh troops served in the Semipalatinsk (now Semey) Polygon, an area of just over 7,000 square miles where the USSR developed its nuclear weapons. Some 40 atomic soldiers are still alive. But not for long. Radiation sicknesses are killing them.