While the US was testing nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert, the Soviet Union was doing the same in the north east of Kazakhstan. The Semipalatinsk Test Site had carried out 456 nuclear tests from 1949 to 1989 before closing in 1991 with 116 above ground and 340 underground. Those who lived near the site were subject to various diseases caused by the nuclear tests which is why in 1989, an Anti- Nuclear movement was set up and it led to the Semipalatinsk site being abandoned. Despite that, it has become the best researched atomic testing site in the world, in fact it is the only atomic testing site that is open to the general public. It is also the site of the signing of the Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone which was signed on 8 September 2006 by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.