Drivers in this former Soviet Central Asian state are forbidden to stop until they reach their final destination – a storage zone where the waste will be buried under thick layers of compacted clay and rock.

Three decades on from independence, Kyrgyzstan is still dealing with the consequences of the Cold War nuclear arms race, when Central Asia provided the Soviet Union with all of its uranium. Kyrgyz authorities say there are now six million cubic metres of radioactive waste in 30 sites such as Min-Kush, which require complex and costly disposal measures.

“When the Soviet Union collapsed, Kyrgyzstan had neither the equipment nor the money to transfer the waste to safe sites,” said Ilgiz Ernis, deputy mayor of the Min-Kush municipality. “The process was badly delayed,” he said.

The disposal work is now in its final stages and is being carried out by the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom as well as the European Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Radioactive waste has also been found in the river running through Min-Kush that flows into the Syr Darya, the second-largest river in the region, potentially threatening up to 80 million people.

Health risks from radiation were covered up in Soviet times but, unlike many other parts of the Communist bloc, atomic industry towns like Min-Kush had no food shortages. “Everything was available,” Berdaliyeva remembered. Scientific studies have found an abnormal prevalence of illnesses such as cancer and depleted immune systems among people living close to nuclear waste sites.

The town in central Kyrgyzstan wants to turn the page from its toxic past and local officials are even hoping that it could have tourism potential. “The transfer of uranium waste to a safer area will allow Min-Kush to be taken off the red list for tourism,” deputy mayor Ernis said.