Russia says five killed in mysterious rocket test accident: RIA

[rooster59]

Russia says five killed in mysterious rocket test accident: RIA

By Tom Balmforth and Maria Tsvetkova

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom said early on Saturday that five of its staff members had been killed in an accident during tests on a military site in northern Russia, the RIA news agency reported.

 

The accident occurred during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine, RIA said, citing Rosatom.

 

Rosatom was quoted as saying that a further three of its staff had received injuries of varying degrees of seriousness during the accident, including burns. They were receiving the necessary medical treatment in specialised facilities, it said.

 

Russian authorities had previously said that two people had been killed in the incident and that a nearby city had reported a rise in radiation levels when the rocket engine blew up at a testing site in the Archangelsk region on Thursday.

 

Authorities said they had been forced to shut down part of a bay in the White Sea to shipping as a result

Local residents have been stocking up iodine used to reduce the effects of radiation exposure after the accident, regional media have reported.

 

Russia's Ministry of Defence has given few details of the accident.

 

Although the defence ministry initially said that no harmful chemicals were released into the atmosphere and that radiation levels were unchanged, authorities in the nearby city of Severodvinsk reported what they described as a brief spike in radiation. No official explanation has been given for why such an accident would cause radiation to spike.

 

The radiation statement put out by the city of Severodvinsk disappeared from the Internet on Friday without explanation.

 

An unidentified naval officer quoted by the Kommersant newspaper said the accident could have occurred at a testing site at sea and that the explosion of a rocket could have caused a toxic fuel spill.

 

Russia media have said that the rocket engine explosion may have occurred at a weapons testing area near the village of Nyonoksa.

 

Those reports say an area near Nyonoksa is used for tests on weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles that are used by the Russian navy.

 

Greenpeace has cited data from the Emergencies Ministry that it said showed radiation levels had risen 20 times above the normal level in Severodvinsk around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Nyonoksa.

 

(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-10

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[rabas]

News elsewhere describes general panic to buy iodine tablets, which help protect the thyroid from radiation damage, and rescue workers in plastic suits. An ordinary cruise missile has nothing that can produce such radiation.

 

So is Russia secretly working in long range nuclear powered cruise missiles? A totally unconscionable weapon that could accidentally detonate over anyone's territory, like it just did in Russia.

[grumpy 4680]

     What ever the truth is, you can guarantee the Russian Government will Lie, It's their normal policy.

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

An unidentified naval officer quoted by the Kommersant newspaper said the accident could have occurred at a testing site at sea

Maybe a submarine launch to test a new nuclear missile weapon?

2 hours ago, rabas said:

So is Russia secretly working in long range nuclear powered cruise missiles?

Don't you mean nuclear armed missiles, ie., missiles that carry a nuclear warhead?

For the 10-30 minutes that a long range ICBM is in flight, nuclear propulsion isn't required.

As to working "secretly," I would expect any country to do the same with their own weaponry  development programs. 

Did this alleged rocket launch violate any international treaties that would motivate Russia to act otherwise secretly?

• Trump abandoned the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, saying “we will move forward with developing our own military response options” to Russia’s suspect missile.
• The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires on February 5, 2020 unless both parties agree to extend it—which they may not do. New START limits the number of missiles the U.S. and Russia deploy, with an eye toward reducing the overall number of nuclear weapons in the world. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russias-new-nuclear-missiles-squeeze-response-time/

So maybe Russia intends not to renew New Start and is just getting an early (albeit failed) start on a new ICBM missile by violating what will be a dead treaty. Trump has already indicated he's prepared to start a nuclear missile arms race - why should Russia wait for the exact end date of New Start?

John Bolton, national security adviser to President Trump, has said a long-range nuclear-arms treaty would likely not be extended. https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-says-russia-will-spy-on-u-s-to-match-missile-development-11565024746

 

 

[rabas]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

Maybe a submarine launch to test a new nuclear missile weapon?

Don't you mean nuclear armed missiles, ie., missiles that carry a nuclear warhead?

For the 10-30 minutes that a long range ICBM is in flight, nuclear propulsion isn't required.

No, I mean a nuclear powered cruise missile. It's an old and simple idea but very messy.  It works by using a super hot nuclear core similar to a bomb or reactor but it does not explode. In a ramjet mode, air comes in the front and is superheated by the hot core and thrust out the back. Similar to a jet engine but the heat comes for the nuclear core, no fuel is needed, the fuel is the hot air. The range would be near infinite.  Only problem is there's no good way to shut them down. Of course they are probably designed to carry a nuke anyway. Nasty stuff.

 

I doubt such a horror weapon is 'allowed' by any treaty. By secret I mean they would seriously need to hide it. It's exposure will cause waves.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

Edited August 10, 2019 by rabas

[Scott]

Troll post removed.