Remains of the Soviet Union's Nuclear Bombing Fields

A mushroom cloud formed during a nuclear bombing blast in the Semipalatinsk Testing Site in northern Kazakhstan.

Inside an underground command center that controlled when the bombs went off. Looters have stripped the command center of any metals, including rebar, that they can resell. Almost nothing but the shell is left.

This is an elevator shaft that goes down to an underground laboratory. Looters dug away all the earth and stripped the shaft of any metals that it could resell.

An underground silo that has been filled with water and stripped of its nuclear components.

For more information see ​my story in Foreign Policy magazine.