In several recent Pentagon and other government reports, the prospect of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missiles has been frequently cited as a potential new kind of threat. intelligence officials suspect that the event was related to a prototype of Russia’s proposed “Skyfall” missile system, which the New York Times describes as a “cruise missile that Putin has boasted can reach any corner of the earth because it is partially powered by a small nuclear reactor, eliminating the usual distance limitations of conventionally fueled missiles.” Announced last year in Putin’s state-of-the-union speech, the proposed missile class could be a doozy. But the state’s vague confirmation - detailing the explosion of an “isotope power source for a liquid fueled rocket engine” - did more to ignite inquiry than quell speculation. An evacuation of a nearby village was planned, then canceled.īy Saturday, Rosatom was correcting its casualty count, adding that five scientists “tragically died testing a new special product,” and confirming that radioactive materials were involved in the explosion. By Friday, a Russian maritime authority had cut off shipping access in the surrounding bay for a month a nuclear-nonproliferation group identified a specialized ship frequently used to carry liquid radioactive waste within the exclusion zone near the explosion pharmacies in the region began to run out of iodine, believed to be a first line of defense against radiation sickness and a Russian news site published a video in which personnel injured by the explosion were taken to a hospital in Moscow in ambulances sealed with plastic, in an apparent attempt to prevent contamination. Within hours of the explosion, scientists in Severodvinsk clocked a spike in radiation, though the report was cleared from its website shortly after.
The aftermath of the explosion brought another familiar Russian concern: the possibility of a cover-up of a nuclear event. Rosatom initially attributed the casualties to a rocket-engine blast using a Russian idiom, the state corporation issued a collectivist lament: “A bright memory of our comrades will forever live in our hearts.” On Thursday, August 8, Russia’s state nuclear-energy company, Rosatom, announced that two military personnel had been killed in an explosion at a military testing site outside Severodvinsk, a city on the White Sea with restricted access for foreign visitors. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images officials reportedly believe the nuclear blast in Russia was related to the development of a weapons system announced by Vladimir Putin in 2018.
0 kommentar(er)
