On 8 August, in Russia, at the Nyonoksa military area in the north-western Arkhangelsk region, the liquid-propellant jet engine of a missile exploded while the military were testing the isotopic power source of the brand-new Burevestnik cruise missile. The announcement was made by Rosatom itself, the Russian nuclear agency, through the Russian news agency Interfax. Details about the nuclear incident are minimal, as it involves a classified project. The explosion appears to have been caused by the liquid-propellant engine catching fire.

Seven fatalities have been confirmed to date; the injured are reported to have been taken to the Burnazyan hospital in Moscow, staffed by specialists equipped with special suits for protection against radiation and chemical agents.

Explosion detected as far as Norway

The Arkhangelsk region site is one of the main research and development facilities for the Russian navy, where ballistic, intercontinental and cruise missiles are developed and tested.

The explosion was so powerful that it was detected by four stations of the monitoring network of the Comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty organization (Ctbto), an international organisation based in Vienna linked to the treaty that prohibits nuclear tests.

According to the Ctbto's announcement, the four stations that recorded the explosion are located at Bardufoss in Norway, approximately 1,030 kilometres as the crow flies from the site of the explosion, at Lahti in Finland, at Karasjok and on the Svalbard Islands, also in Norway.

CTBTO ✓ @CTBTO

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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).

♥ 280💬 15 10 ago 2019 · Apri su X →

Fear over the nuclear incident

The administration of the city of Severodvinsk, thirty kilometres east of the incident site, reported that a brief radiation spike of 0.11 microsieverts per hour (μSv/h) was recorded, with a maximum peak of 0.6. According to the source, the rise in radiation lasted only half an hour and the daily average was not seriously affected.

A different assessment came from Greenpeace Russia, according to which a peak in the radiation background of 2 μSv/h was recorded at the same location, exceeding the normal background level by twenty times.

Meanwhile, residents of the cities surrounding the incident — where the memory of Chernobyl remains very much alive — have been stockpiling iodine tablets from pharmacies, used to counter the effects of radiation on the thyroid.

Many concerns also remain over the floating nuclear power plant that Russia recently launched to supply electricity to oil wells in the Arctic.