nuclear-news

Residents paid little heed for years. That changed on Aug. 8, when an explosion during a missile test killed at least seven people and caused radiation levels to spike in the area around Severodvinsk.

U.S. officials said the explosion confirmed that Russia is endeavoring to develop high-grade specialized nuclear weapons, as Moscow makes fresh efforts to produce a new generation of arms capable of overcoming U.S. defense systems.

University student Alexandra Volkova closed all her windows when she heard about the blast hours after it occurred, but is afraid she acted too late.

“I’m not sure if I have been exposed to radiation,” the 22-year-old said. “I’m not sure whether it’s a serious problem. I’m not sure whether I should have taken some iodide.”………

It is now unclear whether a parallel accord, New START, which limits U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear arms, will be renewed when it expires in 2021.

The Kremlin hasn’t named the weapon that was being tested in the explosion in an area called Nyonoksa, which a CIA report declassified in 2013 described as a prominent weapons testing site.

Experts believe the explosion resulted from Russia’s failed test of its nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile, known as Skyfall, which it started developing in the 2000s.

Mr. Putin unveiled the weapon last year in a slick animated video, showcasing a guided missile gliding untracked over oceans and circumventing air-defense systems. The Kremlin has described the missile as virtually unstoppable, with potentially unlimited range and an unpredictable flight pattern. Little is publicly known about it.

If completed, Skyfall would be an “unshielded nuclear reactor that’s essentially just flying around pumping out radiation,” Mr. Korda said.

The accident sowed concerns among residents around Severodvinsk, home to a naval base and around 183,000 people.

“As far as we knew, there was never any nuclear testing here and there had never been any accidents with radiation involved,” said Oleg Mandrykin, a businessman and environmental activist in the city.

“People died because of this explosion, because of high exposure to radiation,” he said. “Now people here are worried because they just don’t understand what happened.”

Russian authorities’ Soviet-era style secrecy in the aftermath of the explosion exacerbated fears. A notice on the Severodvinsk city website announcing a spike in radiation levels following the blast was quickly deleted. An initial order for residents of Nyonoksa to evacuate was canceled. And at least four Russian monitoring stations designed to detect nuclear radiation were switched off soon after the blast, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said.