Fatal explosion in Russia released radiation, giving United States pause
US intelligence officials are racing to understand a mysterious explosion that released radiation off the coast of northern Russia last week, apparently during the test of a new type of nuclear-propelled cruise missile hailed by President Vladimir Putin as the centerpiece of Moscow’s arms race with the United States.
American officials have said nothing publicly about the blast on Thursday, possibly one of the worst nuclear accidents in Russia since Chernobyl, although apparently on a far smaller scale, with at least seven people, including scientists, confirmed dead.
But the Russian government’s slow and secretive response has set off anxiety in nearby cities and towns — and attracted the attention of analysts in Washington and Europe who believe the explosion may offer a glimpse of technological weaknesses in Russia’s new arms program.
Thursday’s accident happened offshore of the Nenoksa Missile Test Site and was followed by what nearby local officials initially reported was a spike in radiation in the atmosphere.
Late Sunday night, officials at a research institute that had employed five of the scientists who died confirmed for the first time that a small nuclear reactor had exploded during an experiment in the White Sea, and that the authorities were investigating the cause.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fatal-explosion-in-russia-released-radiation-giving-united-states-pause/ar-AAFFnJQ?li=BBnb7Kz
= new reply since forum marked as read
Frightening!
ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.
For all we know this was a conventional rocket accident and the nuclear rumors are just bullshit to see if anything or anyone comes sniffing around.
I don't think it was any Project Pluto sort of flying nuclear reactor. Instead they may be using a hot radioactive isotope in some kind of restartable rocket engine. Such a restartable rocket might be incorporated in a conventionally fueled cruise missile able to travel long distances at a leisurely pace. When such a missile detected missile defenses, or even manned fighter jets, it could fire its rocket engines as necessary to dodge threats at very high accelerations.
The rocket itself would use conventional propellants, probably the same jet fuel powering the high efficiency air breathing engines and a relatively safe oxidizer such as liquid oxygen used only in evasive maneuvers.
There are fuel oxidizer combinations that are self igniting which are commonly used in restartable rocket engines but they tend to be very toxic, hard to handle, and inefficient in jet engines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant
MSN needs to keep the game boys away from the news room.
* Even a mention of Chernobyl in this article is wrong-headed and pure fear mongering.
* This was not a true nuclear explosion even though the text might lead the reader to think so.
* The surge in radiation levels would have to be confirmed by officials, as would the source.
* The article goes on and on about what a bad-ass this missile will be even though it's not confirmed the missile was involved.
These are about the only facts I can find, assuming we can believe what Russia says:
(snips from BBC)
+++
Initially the defense ministry said the explosion on 8 August had involved a liquid-fuel rocket engine, and gave the death toll as two, without specifying the victims. Later, Rosatom said the test had involved a "radio-isotope propellant source" and had taken place on an offshore platform.
The engineers had completed testing, but suddenly a fire broke out and the engine exploded, throwing the men into the sea, Rosatom said.
All articles of this serious nature should be at least fact and language-checked by a qualified science editor.
KY.......
