SEMEY, KAZAKHSTAN, MARCH 3 The sun sets over Semey, Kazakhstan March 3, 2009. The Nuclear Polygon, located next to Semey was the site of almost 500 nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War. Villagers living close by were given virtually no protection or warning of the dangers of radiation. The United Nations Development Programme says that over a million people were exposed to nuclear radiation over the forty years of nuclear testing.