SSC-X-9 Skyfall - Nenoksa 08 August 2019 Event
The real Donald Trump twitted 12 August 2019 that "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!"
The explosion was detected by seismic and infrasound monitors used by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Austria. David Cullen, director of the UK’s Nuclear Information Service, told VICE News “All the evidence points towards an explosion of a nuclear-powered cruise missile”. But Norway said it had so far not detected any increase in radiation on its own territory. the UK’s radiation monitoring network, RIMNET, told New Scientist it has had no reports of other countries recording increases in radiation levels.
Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom announced 10 August 2019 that five people had died and another three were injured in an explosion at a missile test site in the Arctic that took place on 08 August 2019. The announcement came after the Defense Ministry had said that only two individuals died, with another seven injured. That the update was released by the state-run atomic power agency, not the Defense Ministry, added to mounting evidence of some sort of nuclear-related accident at the site.
Officials released few details of the explosion, which took place at a missile test site near Nyonoksa, a village on the White Sea in the northwest corner of the county. The site has been used since the Soviet era for testing maritime missiles. Rosatom said that its nuclear specialists were at the missile testing site to provide engineering and technical support in the aftermath of the accident.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the explosion took place during testing of a liquid propellant rocket engine. No dangerous substances were released, the ministry said. The ministry statement came after officials in the city of Severodvinsk, roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the test site, said on their website that automatic radiation detectors in the city "recorded a brief rise in radiation levels" around noon. The levels were 20 times higher than normal, according to Greenpeace, which prompted the environmental group to call on federal authorities to identify exactly what kind of radiation had been released. Norway's official nuclear safety agency reported on August 9 that its sensors had not reported any increase in radiation levels since the previous day.
On August 9, meanwhile, the newspaper Kommersant reported that military officials had ordered a month-long ban on swimming and fishing in the entire Dvina Bay, which flows into the White Sea, after detecting the presence of a highly toxic rocket fuel known as heptyl. The fuel has been used in Russian rockets for years.
Two US-based experts said in separate interviews with Reuters news agency that a liquid rocket propellant explosion would not release radiation. They said they suspected the explosion and the radiation release resulted from a mishap during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile at a facility outside the village of Nyonoksa. "Liquid fuel missile engines exploding do not give off radiation, and we know that the Russians are working on some kind of nuclear propulsion for a cruise missile," said Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists.
Communications Department of Rosatom State Corporation stated "As a result of an accident at a military training ground in the Arkhangelsk region, five employees of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom were killed while testing a liquid propulsion system. Three of our colleagues received injuries and burns of varying severity. The tragedy occurred during the period of work related to the engineering and technical support of isotopic power sources in a liquid propulsion system. At the moment, all the victims have been delivered to a specialized medical institution, they are provided with all the necessary medical care. On behalf of the huge team of Rosatom, we express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims. Their families will be assisted and supported. The bright memory of our comrades will forever remain in our hearts."
The ignition and subsequent explosion near Severodvinsk occurred during a missile test on an offshore platform, TASS explained in the communications department of Rosatom state corporation. "The rocket tests were carried out on the offshore platform. After the tests were completed, the rocket fuel ignited, followed by detonation. After the explosion, several employees were thrown into the sea and there was hope to find them alive. The search continued until there was hope to find survivors. Only after that the deaths of five Rosatom employees who were involved in work related to a radioisotope power source that was part of the rocket were announced, "the department said. According to the representative of Rosatom, "there was a confluence of factors, which often happens when testing new technologies."
"Our employees, of course, were aware of the importance and potential danger of the work, the specialists work in conditions of the potential risk inherent in all tests. Each of us suffered a heavy loss. This is a personal pain. Farewell to our colleagues will be held on Monday, August 12," - said the representative of the state corporation.
According to him, "the financial responsibility for the future of the families of the deceased comrades now, of course, lies with the state corporation Rosatom." This is not only about one-time help. This is a small part of what we can do as a sign of appreciation for the dedicated work of the testers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of all of us," the source added.
In a video published on a Sarov news website on August 11, Vyacheslav Solovyov, a nuclear researcher at the main nuclear research facility in Sarov, said the researchers had been investigating, among other things "the creation of small-scale sources of energy using radioactive fissile materials."
On 11 August 2019, Director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) Valentin Kostyukov in his speech on television in the city of Sarov (Nizhny Novgorod region) named the names of the center’s employees who died during an incident while testing a rocket at the Ministry of Defense’s training ground in the Arkhangelsk region. "The death of employees is a bitter loss for the entire nuclear center and Rosatom State Corporation. The testers are national heroes. These people were the elite of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center and sometimes tested in the most incredibly difficult conditions," he said, adding that the specialists who died were submitted to state awards. According to Kostyukov, the dead were Alexey Vyushin, Evgeny Korataev, Vyacheslav Lipshev, Sergey Pichugin, Vladislav Yanovsky.
All five lived in the closed city of Sarov, worked in the design bureau No. 12 at the Research Institute of Experimental Physics - RFNC-VNIIEF. According to the State Corporation, the tragedy occurred during the period of work related to the engineering and technical support of "isotopic power sources in a liquid propulsion system". As reported, the Ministry of Defense did not allow the service of the Ministry of Emergencies to the scene and decided to cope with the consequences of the accident on its own.
On August 13, Donald Trump tweeted that, according to Washington, the explosion at the Arkhangelsk training ground is related to the Skyfall missile (the name of the Russian Petrel missile according to NATO classification). "The explosion of the Russian Skyfall made people worry about air quality not only near the facility (where the test was conducted - IF), but also far beyond," Trump said.
On August 13 Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the emergency in the Arkhangelsk region and urged journalists to focus on statements by Russian organizations, not American leader Donald Trump. "You know that the organization conducting the tests has already made a statement on this subject, they gave information, they explained the causes of the accident that occurred during the tests, which, to our great regret, led to the death, to the heroic death of our colleagues," said Peskov. I have nothing more to add to this. I still urge you to focus on the information that our organizations provide. " However, he noted that the safety of residents of the Arkhangelsk region is fully ensured . "Naturally, everything is done by all competent departments in this situation and the security of the citizens of the Russian Federation is fully ensured, there should be no doubt about that," he said.
“Over the past year, there have been several statements by US officials, including the military, who have said that similar research programs [on the creation of missile weapons] are being conducted in the US, ” he said . “Of course, it would be strange if the country, a world power that spends more on defense money than all other countries in the world, has not been involved in such projects." Peskov added that Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that "Russian developments in this area are far ahead of the level that other countries have achieved and are quite unique."
Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) reported : "According to the FSBI “Northern UGMS”, after a short-term increase in the MAED at 6 posts of the Arkhangelsk Territorial (AT) ASKRO at 12:00 Moscow time on August 8, 2019, at August 14, Moscow time, at 14:30 hours Moscow time, the stabilization of radiation gamma background. It is assumed that the increase in DER at posts on August 8, 2019 is associated with the passage of a cloud of radioactive inert gases. The meteorological situation in the Arkhangelsk region contributed to the rapid dispersal of the cloud. In the period from 14.30 Moscow time on August 8 to 16, 2019, the values ??of the DER in Severodvinsk according to ATSCRO data varied from 0.11 to 0.19 µSv / h, which corresponds to the radiation gamma background."
Radioactive isotopes that could be produced by a “cloud” flying over Severodvinsk should have at least two properties. Their half-life should be from several hours to several months. If the period is shorter, then the isotope would not have reached, did not have time. If it is longer, then the isotope will be already insufficiently radioactive to give a 20-fold excess of the background "on the fly." The isotope must emit beta and gamma rays, because alpha rays do not participate in the formation of the radioactive background.
There are only six inert gases. Argon, Neon and Helium have no isotopes that do not satisfy these conditions at all. The only long-lived Radon isotope 222Rn that could "fly", is alpha active and could not give a background increase. Krypton has only one isotope could "fly" and give a background, this is Krypton 79. But there are no reactions that would produce this isotope in more or less sufficient quantities. The isotope is so rare that it is even little studied.
Xenon has two radioactive isotopes that could "fly" and give rise to a radioactive background. These are 133Xe and 135Xe. Both are formed in nuclear reactors, they have nowhere else to come from. Xenon 135 is formed during the chain reaction of the decay of Uranium 235.
The level of radiation in Severodvinsk following the August 8 incident at a military test site was 4-16 times above the natural background, the Russian weather watching service Rosgidromet said on its website referring to the northern directorate for hydrometeorology and monitoring of the environment as its primary source. "As at 12:00 on August 8, 2019 the Arkhangelsk territorial system of radiation control registered gamma radiation levels 4-16 times above the background rate of the ambient dose equivalent for the given territory," the report said. The August 13 statement added further evidence to reports that the test at the Nyonoksa range on the White Sea released not only toxic missile fuel but also unspecified radioactive material.
TASS quoted an official with the state-run nuclear agency Rosatom as saying the levels were harmless for humans. On the day of the incident the chief of the city's civil defense department Valentin Magomedov said that the radiation background in Severodvinsk was thrice the permissible level (2 microsieverts per hour) for about thirty minutes. The permissible exposure is 0.6 microsieverts per hour. The consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor says the exposure of a patient who undergoes X-ray examination of the digestive system is 3.3 millisieverts per examination.
On 13 August 2019 the IAEA stated that "The IAEA has contacted its counterparts in the Russian Federation regarding the incident at a facility of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Severodvinsk on 8 August 2019, and received the following reply from the counterparts: -- this facility does not belong to the facilities for the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and that -- according to the official data of the Main Directorate of EMERCOM of Russia(*) at Arkhangelsk Region, after the incident the radiation level in the region is equal to the natural radiation background, as confirmed by the data from the automated radiation situation monitoring system (ASKRO)". * Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters"
The term "facilities for the peaceful use of nuclear energy" includes nuclear power stations, their storage facilities for new and spent nuclear fuel and their radioactive waste management facilities. Paragraph 1 of Article IV of the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] provides that "nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right" of States Party to pursue the use of nuclear energy "for peaceful purposes". At the end of 2014, the IAEA was implementing safeguards in some 1,300 facilities and safeguarding nuclear material equivalent to some 190,000 "significant quantities" - the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded. This would include 25 kg of HEU (235U = 20%). The Tory IIC nuclear reactor for the Pluto/SLAM nuclear ramjet inclluded a mass of 38.6 kg of Uranium U-235.
Russia's Defense Ministry as well as Rosatom began reporting that the engine of the missile in question contained an atomic battery. An atomic battery would be insufficient to provide a missile with an "unlimited range," assuming that term indicates a capacity to stay in the air for days, and probably not enough to propell a missile at all.
An evacuation was ordered for the small town of Nyonoksa on the coast of the White Sea because of activities at the test site where the explosion occurred. However, hours later, Russian officials backtracked on the order. Ksenia Yudina, a spokeswoman for the Severodvinsk regional administration, said planned military activities at the site were canceled and the town's 500 residents did not have to leave.
The Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA), the national authority and expert body in matters concerning nuclear security, radiation use, natural radiation and radioactive contamination in the environment, reported 15 August 2019 : "Tiny amounts of radioactive iodine has been measured in air at our air filter station in Svanhovd in Northern Norway. The level detected is very low and poses no harm to people nor the environment. The sample was taken in the period 9-12 August 2019. The measurement result is comparable to earlier measurements. Norwegian monitoring stations detect radioactive iodine about 6-8 times a year and the source is usually unknown. When no other radioactive substances than iodine is detected, the source is most likely releases from production facilities for radioactive pharmaceuticals containing iodine. At present it is not possible to determine if the last iodine detection is linked to the accident in Arkhangelsk last week. DSA continues more frequent sampling and analysis."
Russia’s state meteorological agency Rosgidromet said in a statement on 26 August 2019 that it found strontium, barium and lanthanum in test samples in nearby Severodvinsk, but added that there was no danger to the public at large. The isotopes were Strontium-91, Barium-139, Barium-140, and Lanthanum-140, which have half-lives of 9.3 hours, 83 minutes, 12.8 days, and 40 hours respectively, it said. The radioactive isotopes of short half-life noble gases like krypton and xenon can escape a reactor during an accident because they are difficult to contain through filtration.
Russian Foreign Ministry said on 26 August 2019 that the accident at a naval testing site near Severodvinsk is not related to nuclear tests, and did not fall into the scope of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The test was rather "related to the development of weapons, which we had to start creating as one of the retaliatory measures in connection with U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) in 2002," the ministry quoted Alexei Karpov, Russian representative to the CTBTO, as saying. Karpov made the remarks at the 53rd Session of the Working Group on Verification of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission in Vienna, according to the ministry.
Three employees of the US embassy were removed from the Nenoks-Severodvinsk train on 14 October 2019 as they entered the territory without permission, which is an administrative offense. These were the naval attache at the US Embassy Curtis, the attache at the US Embassy Arriola, as well as the US military attache Dann. After checking the documents, the Americans were released. The US Embassy in Moscow told Interfax that the American diplomats who had been taken off the train from Nenoksa in Severodvinsk were on an official trip, about which the Russian authorities in the person of the Ministry of Defense were notified.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that American diplomats notified the Russian Ministry of Defense about the planned trip, but it was about the intention to visit Arkhangelsk, and not Severodvinsk. “We fully confirm the position of the American embassy that it was an official trip and that they notified the Russian Ministry of Defense of their plans. But they only announced their intention to visit Arkhangelsk, but ended up on the Nenoks-Severodvinsk train. Apparently, they got lost".
"We are ready to present a map of the Russian Federation to the American embassy,” the RF Foreign Ministry added.
The US State Department believes that the explosion in Nenoks (Arkhangelsk region of Russia) in August of this year occurred near the underground from the bottom of a cruise missile with the Burevestnik nuclear power plant, said Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Dinanno. "The cause of the explosion was a serious failure at the Petrel (Skyfall according to the NATO-IF classification). An uncontrolled nuclear reaction occurred that led to the release of radiation while Russian specialists lifted the rocket from the bottom," he told The Washington Times 21 October 2019. According to him, "the rocket has been at the bottom since the beginning of last year its unsuccessful test took place near a large settlement." He emphasized that the American side discerned attempts by the Russian Federation to conceal information about what had happened. “We are most worried about misinformation. The second problem is that the rocket lay on the ocean floor for a year. And the third is that they tried to hide it,” the assistant secretary of state, who oversees arms control issues, summed up.
Some of the debris that resulted from the blast included two platforms that were dragged ashore in the days after and which continued to emit moderate levels of radiation. The two platforms, which contained partially destroyed industrial equipment, have remained on the shore unguarded and without any explanation from authorities. One was towed there on August 9, the day after the blast; the other arrived five days after, One of the platforms has the remains of what appears to be a heavily damaged crane, along with a ladder for scuba divers or an underwater platform along with what appears to be a container for holding radioactive materials. That adds to evidence suggesting that there was an underwater, or near-surface, component to the work that was being conducted on August 8. The presence of the pontoon platforms in the vicinity of the site immediately after the explosion also matched satellite imagery taken in the hours and days after the incident.
On 21 November 2019 Putin named the latest rocket propulsion system, during the tests of which employees of Rosatom near Severodvinsk, which has no world analogues, were killed and promised that Russia would continue to improve this weapon. "The very fact of possessing such unique technologies is today the most important reliable guarantee of peace on the planet," Putin said on Thursday at the ceremony of presenting to the widows of the specialists who died in August during the tests near Severodvinsk, the Order of Courage, which was awarded posthumously to the victims of the explosion.
The president, referring to the families of the victims, said that these experts "led a complex, responsible and critical direction." According to the president, “we are talking about the most advanced and unparalleled technical ideas and solutions, weapons that are designed to ensure sovereignty, security for Russia for decades to come, the world for our children, for your children who grow up with you, are proud rightfully by their fathers. "
"We are all proud of them and will always remember this, we will remember them," Putin stressed.
According to another version, in Severodvinsk a booster liquid fuel block exploded. Its design included radioisotope autonomous power sources. “Batteries” are not a “power capsule” reactor; a fission chain reaction does not occur in them. Radioactive elements decay, while releasing heat, the conversion of which gives energy. Confirmation of the version about the "batteries" can be found in an interview with the leadership of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF). It was the RFNC specialists who died in Nenoks. The interview was recorded immediately after the tragedy. The head of the institute said that the deceased employees were engaged in work on miniature power sources. The version with "atomic batteries" looks more believable. It is possible that in Nenox everything was much simpler. Technetium, noticed by Finnish specialists, is used not only in medicine. It can also be used to test new technology. For example, to study how the process proceeds and accelerator systems work, a little radioactive technetium can be added to the fuel. In the analysis, he will show where the problems arose. Also technetium can be used as a regular structural element. For example, it will allow you to monitor the engine automation of the accelerator for the movement of fuel and its mixing with the oxidizing agent. Therefore, as another version, although not voiced, some considered the following option. In the control system of the accelerator was added a certain complex measuring complex, which is based on radioactive elements.
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