authors: Nabil Wakim and Nicolas Ruisseau Published today at 14:12, updated at 20h06
translation: GoogleTranslate/doxa-louise
What is known about the explosion in a Russian base: nuclear reactor, "invincible" missiles and blurry remarks
The actual record and circumstances of the August 8th incident in the Far North are not known due to lack of transparency by the authorities.
What happened on the 8th of August at noon, off Nionoska, in the Arkhangelsk region, in the Russian Far North?The explosion at a nuclear research center reportedly killed five people and injured at least three people. On Monday, the bodies of five engineers of the Russian nuclear agency, Rosatom, were buried with honors. But the actual count remains uncertain and the precise circumstances of the incident are not known, as the lack of transparency of the Russian authorities makes events difficult to reconstruct.
A building of the Nionoska military base, in the Arkhangelsk region, on November 9, 2011. It was in this base that the accident of August 8 occurred.
What caused the explosion?
After being content with evasive statements for four days, the Russian authorities finally acknowledged Monday that the accident was linked to tests of "new weapons" , without giving further details. Rosatom also assured that it will "continue work on new types of weapons, which in any case will be seen to completion" .
Several experts quoted by news agencies linked the accident to the new generation of missiles touted in recent months by Vladimir Putin as "invincible" , "undetectable" or "hypersonic" . The nuclear-powered missile Bourevestnik ("storm bird", in Russian) would not be ready yet, but it would have the ambition to overcome almost all interception systems. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has named the Russian missile Skyfall.
In 2018, a few weeks before the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin made the annoucement of new Russian missiles, seen as a show of force abroad. "Nobody wanted to talk to us, nobody wanted to listen to us. Listen now! " , He shouted, ensuring that new nuclear ballistic forces of the Russian army possessed advanced technology beyond any defense system in the world.
What kind of nuclear missile is it?
A few details emerged on Monday: the accident would also have involved a small nuclear reactor, according to the scientific director of the Sarov Military Center, Viacheslav Soloviev. How can a nuclear reactor be involved in a missile launcher? The fragmentary explanations provided for the moment by the Russian authorities are enough to raise questions: are Russian scientists working on a missile project powered by a nuclear reactor, which would allow it to go around the globe several times?
On Tuesday, the Kremlin spokesman refused to confirm that it was the Bourevestnik. But he assured that Russia's competence in nuclear-powered missiles "significantly exceeds the level reached by other countries and is quite unique" .
To propel a missile with nuclear energy allows, in theory, "to make wide detours to hit the adversary on exposed areas, to use unsupervised trajectories, in order to bypass and surprise American radars and their missile defense" , explained to Agence France-Presse Corentin Brustlein, director of the Center for Security Studies at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
But the technical challenges are huge. We must first miniaturize a nuclear reactor to the point of being able to embark it on board a missile, then manage the safety of researchers during the test phases, then the operators.
In an elliptical statement on Twitter , US President Donald Trump assured that the United States "has learned a lot about the explosion of a defective missile in Russia," adding , "We have a similar but more advanced technology. . " The United States developed in the 60's a prototype nuclear missile, called Pluto project, but that was quickly abandoned.
What are the circumstances of the accident?
The base of the accident, which opened in 1954 and specializes in missile testing of the Russian fleet, including ballistic missiles, is located at sea, near the village of Nionoska in the Far North. Like many Soviet sites, it has long been absent from geographical maps.
The five engineers were buried on Monday in Sarov, south of the base and 400 kilometers east of Moscow, home to Russia's main nuclear research center. This site is not an insignificant place: it was here that the first Soviet atomic bombs were designed. It is a closed city, under very high surveillance and prohibited from access to foreigners without authorization, and which was also long absent from all maps.
In Sarov, some 400 kilometers from Moscow, were held Monday, August 12, the funerals of five engineers who died during the accident.
The Russian nuclear agency, Rosatom , for whom the five killed engineers worked, has the specificity to cover the entire civil and military nuclear chain in Russia. It deals with the construction of nuclear power plants, uranium, waste treatment and a fleet of nuclear icebreakers. It is also Rosatom that sells and builds Russian nuclear power plants abroad, especially in Egypt, Turkey, Hungary or Finland.
Are there any risks of contamination?
The Russian authorities wanted to be reassuring in saying that no radioactive contamination had been found after the accident. But contradictory statements have multiplied.
Contrary to what the Ministry of Defense said, the mayor's office of Severodvinsk, a town located near the site, explained that "the sensors of [the city] have recorded a brief increase of the radioactivity" , without specifying until later to what level. "This radioactivity is now back to normal," however insisted the mayor's office, before withdrawing its publication.
On Tuesday, the Russian Meteorological Agency confirmed that the radiation level in the area had been sixteen times higher than normal in the city of Severodvinsk. One of the sensors notably found a radioactivity rate of 1.78 microsievert per hour, while the regulatory limit is 0.6 microsievert / hour in Russia and the average natural radioactivity at Severodvinsk is 0.11 microsievert / hour. The agency said however that these levels of radioactivity had then decline very quickly, within two hours of the accident, before returning to normal. Norway has announced that it has strengthened its monitoring of radiation but found nothing abnormal.
In nearby towns, residents have sought stable iodine pellets to protect their thyroid glands in the event of an accidental release of radioactive iodine into the atmosphere. According to the local press, the 450 residents of Nionoska city are being evacuated by train over two hours on Wednesday.
The Norwegian nuclear NGO Bellona has criticized the lack of transparency of the Russian authorities vis - à - vis the inhabitants of the region. "There are a few ways to protect yourself from contamination, but they are few. (...) To use them at the right time, people must be informed as soon as possible of radioactive contamination , " explains Oskar Njaa, from Bellona.
After the explosion, Russia also closed a section of the Dvina Bay on the White Sea. Without knowing whether this decision has an environmental protection goal or whether it reflects a desire to prevent the curious from attempting a recovery operation of debris fallen into the sea.
Nabil Wakim and Nicolas Ruisseau ((Moscow, correspondence))
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source: Le Journal du Dimanche 15:30, August 13, 2019
author: Arnaud Focraud
translation: doxa-louise
Missiles, radioactivity rates ... What we know about the explosion on a military base in Russia
Russian authorities have reported new information on the explosion last Thursday on a nuclear missile firing base in the Far North. Donald Trump also commented.
US experts have linked the explosion in Russia to the tests of the new nuclear missile announced with great fanfare by Vladimir Putin in February.This is a nuclear accident that occurred in Russia last week. The event is rare and leaves many questions about its consequences. After a period of silence, the Russian authorities have finally communicated in recent days about the explosion during a test of missiles at the edge of the White Sea, which killed five employees of the Rosatom nuclear agency . The tone was meant to reassure, but it was confirmed that levels of radioactivity exceeding the usual levels were measured.
For his part, Donald Trump said on Twitter he "knew a lot" about this mysterious explosion ... without really saying more. Here are the elements that have already been made public.
In Severodvinsk, a radioactivity exceeding 16 times the usual level.
On Tuesday, Russian weather agency Rosguidromet announced that the rate of radioactivity after the explosion has exceeded 16 times the usual rate in Severodvinsk, a city of 190,000 inhabitants located about thirty kilometers from the missile test base. But she says these levels have fallen quickly to return to normal in the afternoon. One of the sensors had found a radioactivity level of 1.78 microsievert per hour, while the regulatory limit is 0.6 microsievert per hour in Russia and the average natural radioactivity in Severodvinsk is 0.11 microsievert per hour.
The Russian base concerned by the missile explosion Thursday is near the village of Nionoska.
Such a dose would not present a health hazard: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, for example, that the risk of cancer can increase from 50,000 microsieverts received and the Institute for Radiation Protection and nuclear safety (IRSN) France recommends sheltering populations from 10,000 microsieverts.
After two days of silence, Russia had already acknowledged Saturday that the explosion Thursday was a nuclear one. Before that, the Ministry of Defense and a spokesman for the regional governor had said that "there was no radioactive contamination" while the Severodvinsk town hall assured that its sensors had "recorded a a brief increase in radioactivity ". This publication was later removed from the City Hall website.
An accident occurred during tests on "new weapons"
What exactly happened on Thursday at the Russian base, located near the village of Nionoska, at the edge of the White Sea? After a floating communication from the authorities, the nuclear agency said Monday that the incident occurred on a "maritime platform" during which several employees were thrown into the sea. Its specialists were working on "new weapons" and provided engineering and technical support for the "isotopic energy source" of the exploded missile engine.
This base, opened in 1954, specializes in missile testing of the Russian fleet, including ballistic missiles. An expert from Moscow's Institute for Nuclear Research Boris Zhikov told RBK daily that isotope power sources are mainly used in the space industry and usually do not pose any danger to users. The levels of radioactivity involved have "absolutely nothing to do with those of serious accidents in reactors", he also assured, while the specter of the Chernobyl disaster, in 1986 , was in the minds of many. The authorities had been accused of seeking for several weeks to hide the magnitude of the worst nuclear accident in history.
Donald Trump evokes a Skyfall missile, but is refuted with respect to the US arsenal
Quite logically, the Kremlin refuses to communicate about the type of missile that caused the accident. A spokesman said Tuesday that Russia's competence in nuclear-powered missiles "significantly exceeds the level reached by other countries and is quite unique".
US experts have linked the latter to tests of a nuclear-powered cruise missile that Russia is seeking to acquire, the 9M730 "Bourevestnik" ("storm bird" in Russian). This new missile was unveiled with great pomp by Vladimir Putin in February. With "unlimited scope" according to the Russian president, he would be able to overcome almost all interception systems. But, according to international experts, this might not be ready yet.
Donald Trump tweeted:
The United States is learning much from the failed missile explosion in Russia. We have similar, though more advanced, technology. The Russian “Skyfall” explosion has people worried about the air around the facility, and far beyond. Not good!
In a tweet published Monday, Donald Trump assured that the "United States has learned a lot about the explosion of a defective missile in Russia", mentioning the missile "Skyfall". However, NATO gave the "Bourevestnik" the name of "SSC-X-9 Skyfall". Where the US President was refuted was where he that he said in his message that his country had "a similar technology, but more advanced." This claim was immediately contradicted by a respected expert, Joe Cirincione, president of the Plowshares Fund Foundation: "We do not have a nuclear-powered cruise missile program," he said. We considered developing one, in the 1960s, but it was too delusional, too infeasible,
Joe Cirincione:
This is bizarre. We do not have a nuclear-powered cruise missile program. We tried to build one, in the 1960's, but it was too crazy, too unworkable, too cruel even for those nuclear nuts Cold War years. https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/putins-nuclear-powered-cruise-missile-is-a-rehash-of-an-1823588286 … https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1161026203345723393 …
Putin's Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile Is A Rehash Of A Doomsday Device Too Nuts To Build
Last week Vladimir Putin, a frequently shirtless equestrian who also happens to run the Country Formerly Known As The Soviet Union, gave a long, mildly unhinged state-of-Russia speech that made...
foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com
Be that as it may, Russia has promised to conduct its current tests "to completion". And earlier this year, Vladimir Putin was particularly threatening in promising to deploy this new generation of missiles against Western countries, in response to the new American weapons systems in Europe.
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