ATOM Project Passes 300,000 Signatures on Global Anti-Nuclear Weapons Petition
August 24, 2016
ASTANA – As the world and Kazakhstan mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on August 29, The ATOM Project – a global anti-nuclear weapons initiative – has surpassed 300,000 signatures to tell world leaders the global population is united in its call for a nuclear-weapons-free world.
“We have come a long way. It is a great start gathering 300,000 signatures to make sure no one ever again suffers the horrible effects of nuclear weapons testing and to show world leaders that we want a planet free of the nuclear threat. But we must remain vigilant and keep working, keep uniting until we 
have achieved a nuclear-weapons-free world,” said The ATOM Project Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov.
Kuyukov’s parents were exposed to Soviet-era nuclear weapons testing at the Semipalatinsk test site. As a result, Kuyukov was born without arms. But he has overcome that obstacle to become a renowned painter and international nonproliferation activist who has dedicated his life and art to ending nuclear weapons testing and bringing dignity to testing victims.
The ATOM Project is an international campaign launched in 2012 to do more than create awareness surrounding the human and environmental devastation caused by nuclear weapons testing. The ATOM Project hopes to affect real and lasting change by engaging millions of global citizens to permanently stop nuclear weapons testing by joining together to show the world’s leaders that the global citizens deserve and demand a world without nuclear weapons testing. By signing The ATOM Project petition and joining the dialogue, we can stop nuclear weapons testing forever.
The ATOM Project was started by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who shut down in 1991 the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site in the eastern Kazakhstan after the Soviets had conducted more than 450 nuclear weapons tests there over 40 years. More than 1.5 million Kazakh citizens have been impacted by the tests, including many who, to this day, in the first and the second generations, suffer early death, lifelong debilitating illness and birth defects. Vast areas of the region surrounding Semipalatinsk, roughly the land size of Germany, were contaminated in one degree or another and are now just beginning to come back to life. Kazakhstan knows the horrors of nuclear testing and, through The ATOM Project, has become a world leader in the effort to ensure no such tests are ever again conducted.
Following the closure of the Semipalatinsk site, Kazakhstan soon also renounced what was then the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal and has since worked to permanently end nuclear weapons testing and, ultimately, to build a nuclear weapons free world.
Part of that effort was the successful adoption by the United Nations at Kazakhstan’s initiative on December 2, 2009 of a General Assembly resolution proclaiming August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests. And this August 29 marks the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk site.
On that day, Kazakhstan is calling for a moment of silence at 11:05 a.m. local time around the world to honor nuclear weapons testing victims worldwide and will be hosting, along with Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) in its capital city Astana, a major conference focusing on steps towards a world free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
To sign The ATOM Project online petition and help move The ATOM Project towards half a million signatures, visit www.theatomProject.org. For more information contact info@theatomproject.org.