NEVER reside anywhere near Russian rocket testing sites

"Move along, nothing to see here, comrades... but we're closing a major shipping port for a month."

Two Dead in Russian Rocket Engine Explosion; Radiation Spikes, Shipping Shut
By Reuters
Aug. 8, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/08/08/world/europe/08reuters-russia-blast-rocket-radiation.html

MOSCOW — Two people were killed and a nearby city reported a rise in radiation levels when a rocket engine blew up at a testing site in northern Russia on Thursday, forcing authorities to shut down part of a bay in the White Sea to shipping.

The brief spike in radiation was reported by authorities in the nearby city of Severodvinsk, which has a population of 185,000. This apparently contradicted the defence ministry, which was quoted earlier by state media as saying radiation was normal.

RIA news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying no dangerous substances had been released into the atmosphere by the explosion of what it called a liquid-propellant rocket engine in the Arkhangelsk region. In addition to the two deaths, it said six people were injured in the blast.

"A short-term rise in background radiation was recorded at 12 o'clock in Severodvinsk," Ksenia Yudina, a spokeswoman for the city authorities, said. A statement on the city's website did not specify how high radiation levels had risen, but said the level had fully "normalised".

The rocket engine explosion occurred at a weapons testing area near the village of Nyonoksa in Arkhangelsk region, the Interfax news agency cited unnamed security sources as saying.

Greenpeace cited data from the Emergencies Ministry that it said showed radiation levels had risen 20 times above the normal level in Severodvinsk, which lies around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Nyonoksa. The environmental group said it had appealed to Russia's consumer watchdog to establish how high radiation had risen, whether it posed a health risk to people and what had actually caused the spike.

Russian media said an area near Nyonoksa is used for tests on weapons including ballistic and cruise missiles that are used by the Russian navy.

An official at the northern port of Arkhangelsk said an area of the Dvina Bay in the White Sea had been closed to shipping for a month because of the incident.

"The area is closed," the official, Sergei Kozub, said, without giving further details about the reasons for the move.

Officials did not give full details about the size or location of the area that was closed, but it did not appear to include Arkhangelsk itself, a major port for the export of oil products and coal.

I'm surprised no one has commented on the rise in the background radiation after an explosion during a "rocket test"... which then requires an entire port to be closed for a month. What was it REALLY? Was it a failed ground test of the nuclear propulsion section of this?:

9M730 Burevestnik

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik#cite_note-5

The 9M730 Burevestnik (Russian: Буревестник; "Petrel", NATO reporting name: SSC-X-9 Skyfall)[1] is an experimental Russian nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile and is claimed to have virtually unlimited range.[2]

Another possibility:

I worked with a project that involved the US helping to build a storage facility for dismantled Soviet warhead pieces. This was in the late 1990s under the Nunn-Lugar program, and designed to help the Russians get a handle on their loose fissile material.

The facility was near a former plutonium production reactor. Turns out that the contractor had to leave all the heavy equipment behind, as it had become irradiated by widespread contamination of the ground.

Had a large explosion occurred here or near any of their other weapon-related facilities, it would likely stir up a pretty good dust cloud, which would cause such a short-lived spike in the background radiation.

Bill Hanson said:

Another possibility:

I worked with a project that involved the US helping to build a storage facility for dismantled Soviet warhead pieces. This was in the late 1990s under the Nunn-Lugar program, and designed to help the Russians get a handle on their loose fissile material.

The facility was near a former plutonium production reactor. Turns out that the contractor had to leave all the heavy equipment behind, as it had become irradiated by widespread contamination of the ground.

Had a large explosion occurred here or near any of their other weapon-related facilities, it would likely stir up a pretty good dust cloud, which would cause such a short-lived spike in the background radiation.

Click to expand...

U.S.-based experts suspect Russia blast involved nuclear-powered missile
9 Aug 2019

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...nvolved-nuclear-powered-missile-idUSKCN1UZ2H5

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-based nuclear experts said on Friday they suspected an accidental blast and radiation release in northern Russia this week occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by President Vladimir Putin last year.

On the following theory, one wonders how a "rocket test" explosion would affect a ship enough to require the entire port to be closed for a month. I doubt they're so stupid that they perform a "rocket test" right next to a nuclear fuel carrier ship. I instead suspect the ship was there because it provided the fissile material for the nuclear ramjet or was used to transport the nuclear ramjet itself to the test location. Since the cruise missile ramjet is small it is probable that it uses fairly highly enriched uranium and, therefore, could experience a criticality accident and resulting explosion.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...eak-in-russia-after-a-missile-engine-exploded

Update: 3:30pm EST—

Online tracking data shows that a nuclear fuel carrier ship was in the general area of the incident at the time. It is possible that the explosion in some way impacted that vessel, leading to a radiation leak.

Now 5 dead and confirmed as a nuclear powered missile:

Russia explosion: Five confirmed dead in rocket blast https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49301438

Tl;dr:

“The company told Russian media that its engineering and technical team had been working on the "isotope power source" for the propulsion system.”


Tony

I wish they’d be more careful while my god-daughter is visiting. At least they test in remote locations.

Russia Admits Mysterious Missile Engine Explosion Involved A Nuclear 'Isotope Power Source'
This new detail and other information suggest that the accident might have involved one of Russia's nuclear-powered cruise missiles.
9 Aug 2019

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...plosion-involved-nuclear-isotope-power-source

Excerpts:

Russia's state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom says that a team of its employees had been working on an experimental "isotope power source" when it exploded, killing five people and injuring three more in a still very mysterious accident yesterday. The company offered no specifics about the project, but this new information, coupled with other details, suggests that this power source may be associated with a nuclear-powered cruise missile called Burevestnik that the Kremlin first announced publicly last year.

The accident occurred near the village of Nyonoksa, also written Nenoksa, in the northwestern Russian region of Arkhangelsk on Aug. 8, 2019. This is a known test site for both cruise and ballistic missiles. There have been no previous reports that Russia has previously tested Burevestnik, also known to NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall, which Russian President Vladimir Putin first revealed the existence of in a speech in March 2018, at this particular location. Previous reports, citing anonymous U.S. officials, indicate that the Russians had been testing this missile, details about which are extremely limited, since at least 2017, from Novaya Zemlya, a remote archipelago in Russia’s far north that has also served as a nuclear weapon testing ground.

"The tragedy happened while working with the engineering and technical support of the isotope power source in a liquid propulsion system," Rosatom's statement reads. "Five employees ... were killed while testing a liquid propulsion system. Three of our colleagues received injuries and burns of varying severity."

The statement does not specifically mention Burevestnik, but the general description Rosatom gave sounds similar in many ways to what is known about this weapon's propulsion system. The cruise missile reportedly has a nuclear-powered ramjet engine that uses rocket boosters – as seen in the video of a purported previous test of the weapon below – to get it to an optimal speed. At that point, the fast-moving air would then blow over the hot reactor, before squirting out an exhaust nozzle to generate thrust.

The presence of the nuclear fuel carrier ship Serebryanka in the area at the time of the accident also points to Burevestnik. This ship was reportedly part of a flotilla that Russia sent into the Arctic to reportedly recover one or more crashed Burevestniks last year. The vessel, which is configured to safely transport nuclear fuel rods and similar cargo, would be well suited to carrying nuclear-powered cruise missiles. This ship remains inside a portion of the Dvina Bay in the White Sea that the Russian government closed off to all public and commercial activity after the incident.

Alleged prior test:

Shades of NERVA

But, see previous Russian disinformation on super-weapons. I'm sure some defense contractors are already working on their sales pitches nonetheless.

I remember being told by unnamed defense contractors that we were woefully behind in the race for the Hafnium bomb. (Unless we crossed their palm with a large chunk of cash -- even by Pentagon standards)

Bill Hanson said:

Shades of NERVA

But, see previous Russian disinformation on super-weapons. I'm sure some defense contractors are already working on their sales pitches nonetheless.

I remember being told by unnamed defense contractors that we were woefully behind in the race for the Hafnium bomb. (Unless we crossed their palm with a large chunk of cash -- even by Pentagon standards)

Click to expand...

Project Pluto. What a perfectly sinister weapon:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/project-pluto.47073/

Must have been quite a bang.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...plosion-involved-nuclear-isotope-power-source

Update: 8/10/2019—

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors compliance with this agreement prohibiting nuclear explosions for any purpose, has issued a statement saying that they detected the incident coinciding with the accident at Nyonoksa seismically and via infrasound. However, they did not say that they believed what they had detected was a nuclear weapon detonating.

CTBTO tweet:

In response to media queries, and to meet civil society expectations on applications of #CTBTO data beyond the Treaty, we confirm an event coinciding with the 8 Aug explosion in #Nyonoksa, Russia, was detected at 4 #IMS stations (3 seismic, 1 infrasound).

The rocket-building prowess that put a Russian on the moon, married to the nuclear know-how that brought Kyev clean, safe, abundant electricity. What could possibly go wrong?

From various sources:

Russia is evacuating civilians in the area of Nyonoksa village in the far northern region where a nuclear-powered experimental rocket exploded during tests last Thursday, which had killed seven, Interfax reports.

So far it appears a "recommendation" and not an ordered evacuation, which officials advise should be accomplished by Wednesday, after radiation levels in the vicinity of Severodvinsk spiked to 20 times normal last week in the blast's aftermath. The local governor is insisting its not an "ordered" evacuation but is merely highly recommended.

On August 8, the Ministry of Defense reported the deaths of two people during trials in the Arkhangelsk region. Then, Rosatom announced the death of five more employees of the state corporation and specified that the explosion occurred on an offshore platform when testing a rocket with a radioisotope power source. After the incident, shipping was prohibited for a month on the site of the Dvina Bay of the White Sea, where the tests took place.

I thought this quote from CNN's coverage was classic Soviet-era nonsense:

"A local correspondent for the independent investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta said military officials told residents the evacuation of Nyonoksa was not connected to Thursday's explosion, which claimed the lives of five Russian nuclear specialists."

Yeah, just a complete coincidence. Nothing to see here, move along.


Tony