Kurchatov is a town in Abai Region in north-east Kazakhstan. Named after Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, the town was once the centr…Kurchatov is a town in Abai Region in north-east Kazakhstan. Named after Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov, the town was once the centre of operations for the adjoining Semipalatinsk Test Site. With the cessation of nuclear testing and the decommissioning of the test site, Kurchatov's population has fallen from over 20,000 to around 8,000. In its heyday, Kurchatov was a closed city, one of the most secretive and restricted places in the Soviet Union. The nuclear facilities at Kurchatov are managed by the Kazakhstan Institute of Atomic Energy, a division of the country's National Nuclear Center.
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