Chagan (Irtysh)


The Chagan is a river in the east of Kazakhstan and a left-bank tributary of the Irtysh. It is not to be confused with the Chagan in the west of Kazakhstan, which is a tributary of the Ural. The length of the river is 275 km.
It is the only surface waterway on the Semipalatinsk Test Site, which was used as the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. The river flows along the eastern boundary of the test site and fills the "Atomic Lake" Lake Chagan, a lake created by the Chagan nuclear test.