US wants Nobel Committee to recognize efforts of Kazakh president in nuclear disarmament

US Congressman Eni Faleomavaega has urged the Nobel Committee to recognize contribution of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to nuclear disarmament for closing the Semipalatinski Range, RIA Novosti reports.

The congressman spoke at a conference for a nuclear-free world on Wednesday.

The Kyrgyz Parliament expressed willingness to see Nazarbayev awarded with the Nobel Prize for Peace.
At the conference in Astana, Nazarbayev talked about challenges from closing the range. Such action required him to overcome pressure from the Soviet authorities and Gorbachev.

Nazarbayev believes that a new age of global nuclear history started on August 29, 1991. On that day Kazakhstan abandoned nuclear arms. The UN declared it international day against nuclear tests.

The Semipalatinski Range is one of the largest nuclear ranges of the USSR. It has only three analogues in the world. The first tests at the range were held on August 29, 1949, when a bomb equivalent to 22 kilotons of TNT was dropped.