From 1983-1984, six underground peaceful nuclear explosions were conducted at Lira, creating underground storage cavities in salt domes with a volume of about 60,000 cubic meters.[1,2,3,4] These cavities were created to store gas condensate extracted from the Karachaganak gas field in Western Kazakhstan Oblast. The Aksay branch of the Institute of Nuclear Physics has monitored the radiation level in the Lira cavities since 1998 and has declared that the gas condensate within is safe.[5]

Sources:
[1] Smantay Tleubergenov, Poligony Kazakhstana (Almaty: Gylym, 1997), pp. 56, 61, 134.
[2] Smantay Tleubergenov, Ekologiya cheloveka (Almaty: Gylym, 1993), p. 195.
[3] Information provided to NISNP by the Kazakhstan Atomic Energy Agency, 26 October 1996.
[4] "Radiation Situation on the Territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan," Aziya-Ezh, No. 47, November 1996, p. 23; in "Kazakhstan: Results of Radioactive Contamination Study," FBIS-SOV-96-252-S.{Updated 11/6/2000 KB} 
[5] "Filial IYaF v ZKO budet otslezhivat nalichiye radioaktivnykh veshchestv v karachaganakskoy nefti," Panorama, No. 45, November 2000.{Updated 6/8/2001 NA}