Comparative analysis of water contamination of the Shagan river at the Semipalatinsk test site with heavy metals and artificial radionuclides.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree of contamination of the largest waterway of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (STS), the Shagan River, with heavy metals and artificial radionuclides. With the data obtained by the long term monitoring results, we identified the most significant contaminants and determined the most contaminated reaches of the Shagan River. The contamination indices for heavy metals were calculated and applied to evaluate possible usage of the Shagan River water for domestic purposes.