Russia Admits Mysterious Missile Engine Explosion Involved A Nuclear 'Isotope Power Source'
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 revealedthe 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 morecrashed 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.
An
August 8 image from @planetlabs showing the Serebryanka, a nuclear fuel carrier,
near a missile test site in Russia, where an explosion and fire broke out
earlier. The ship's presence may be related to the testing of a nuclear-powered
cruise missile.
It's not clear how a
liquid fuel rocket motor or jet engine, the component that reportedly exploded,
might fit into the Burevestnik's design. It is possible that the system uses
liquid fuel rocket boosters to get it to the necessary speeds for the ramjet to
work. The incident in question may have also involved an experimental
configuration with a small nuclear reactor installed, but a conventional jet
engine providing actual propulsion, in order to evaluate other features ahead
of full tests of the missile in a more representative configuration. Another
possibility could be that this was a reference to a liquid nuclear fuel-powered reactor.
Unlike a missile using a
conventional jet engine or rocket motor, the nuclear power plant could
potentially keep the missile flying for weeks on end and give it virtually unlimited
range, making it a nightmare for anyone trying to defend against it.
Unfortunately, this also means that any test of the weapon, even one without a
live warhead, still involves launching a radioactive payload. Whether or not
the test fails – and crashes or explodes – or the missile succeeds in reaching
its destination, it will always involve crashing a nuclear reactor into the
ground or the ocean.
Of course, there remains a
possibility that this incident was unrelated to Burevestnik, but this weapon is
the only one that Russia has announced publicly that it is working on that
involves a nuclear power source. Whatever the case, it remains worrisome that
the Kremlin would be testing any such propulsion system in such relatively
close proximity to population centers. Reported testing of the Burevestnik
in Novaya Zemlya had made good sense.
Questions remain about how
much radiation may have leaked out as a result of the accident. City officials
in Severodvinsk, to the east of Nyonoksa, initially reported that there had
been a brief spike in radiation based on readings of up to 20 millisieverts per
hour from two sensors that are part of an automated civil defense system.
Typical background radiation for the area is 0.11 millisieverts per hour. There
are reports that sales of iodine, which can help prevent radiation absorption
in the body, surged after the
incident, though there does not to be any confirmation that officials had
actually ordered residents to take it.
GOOGLE
MAPS
A map showing the relative
locations of Nyonoksa, at left, and Severodvinsk, at right.
However, Severodvinsk authorities did say that the
radiation levels had returned to normal within hours of the accident. The
Russian Ministry of Defense subsequently denied any radiation leak whatsoever.
Late on Aug. 8, 2019, officials in Severodvinsk pulled down the alerts about
radiation that they had posted online in Russian and in English, deferring to
the Ministry of Defense.
Well...sh**, this isn't the first time Serebryanka has been in the vicinity of the SSC-X-9 Skyfall (Burevestnik) tests.
Link to removed post remain in multiple #Russian outlets. http://Archive.org managed to capture a copy of the article. https://web.archive.org/web/20190808132552/http://www.severodvinsk.info/pr/17895/ …
Regardless, it seems very
clear that there was at least some release of radiation. The Norweigan
Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, also known by the acronym DSA, which
has a close working relationship with its counterparts in Russia, issued its own
statement on Aug. 9, 2019, to say that it had received reports about a
radiation leak, but noted that it had not detected any increased radiation from
its own sensors.
"Six persons are receiving treatment [in
Russia] after receiving higher doses of radiation," the statement noted,
though it does not say if any of them had died from the exposure. "No
increased levels of radioactivity has [sic] been found, but the DSA will
continue to monitor."
Pictures and video of Russian personnel in
protective gear screening helicopters bringing in the wounded and ambulance
drivers taking similar precautions as they took the individuals to a local hospital
would certainly seem to imply that they had sustained significant radiation
exposure. This could also have been standard precautions given the radiological
nature of the incident.
Arkhangelsk
right now. Earlier in the region there was an explosion at a military base, and
emergency services noted an excess of radiation levels. Now patients are
brought in in suits of radiation protection...
source: https://t.me/breakingmash
source: https://t.me/breakingmash
People
in radiation protection suits measured the background of a helicopter. When
they were convinced that the copter was not radiating and everything was
normal, they started unloading the wounded.
#Russia
victims #Severodvinsk missile explosion flown to Moscow; video shows
ambulance drivers in HAZMAT suits, vehicles enclosed in cellophane.pic.twitter.com/FuU8EZVTg5
As one does with @mod_russia claim missile was a conventional fuel accident.
Via @Liveuamap and @bazabazon https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1159774187109720064 …
As one does with @mod_russia claim missile was a conventional fuel accident.
Via @Liveuamap and @bazabazon https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1159774187109720064 …
If a Burevestnik missile,
or a test article related to that weapon's development, was involved in the
accident, it is not clear how the incident might impact the program going
forward. Previous reports, citing unnamed U.S. government officials, had said that
the program had suffered numerous
failures already.
How serious Russia is or
isn't about the missile, and how viable a weapon it could ever be at all,
remains up for debate. The Kremlin has stressed in the past that
Burevestnik does not fall under the terms of the New
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, with the United States, but it
has also indicated that it might be willing to include it in a revised or
all-new agreement. This raises the possibility that Russia may have begun
development of this high-risk system, along with a similarly controversial
nuclear-powered torpedo called Poseidon, at least in part, simply so
it could offer to end the program in return for concessions from the U.S.
government in future arms control negotiations.
Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting
to see what, if any, additional information the Kremlin might release about
this incident going forward now that an arm of the Russian government has gone
on the record to admit to the accident at least tangentially involved
radioactive material.
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