Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Saturday August 10 2019, @08:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the apply-twice-a-day-until-the-second-head-and-third-arm-have-gone dept.

Russia explosion: Five confirmed dead in rocket blast

Five people were killed and three injured following a rocket explosion on an Arctic naval test range in Russia on Thursday, state nuclear company Rosatom confirmed. Rosatom said the accident occurred during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine. The three injured staff members suffered serious burns in the accident. Authorities had previously said that two people died and six were injured in the blast at the site in Nyonoksa.

The company told Russian media that its engineering and technical team had been working on the "isotope power source" for the propulsion system. The Nyonoksa site carries out tests for virtually every missile system used by the Russian navy, including sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.

Authorities in Severodvinsk, 47km (29 miles) east of Nyonoksa said that radiation levels shortly after the blast were higher than normal for about 40 minutes but returned to normal. Locals have rushed to buy medical iodine, with pharmacies' stocks of iodine reported to be running out in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk. The rush for iodine was reported earlier by a news website for the Arkhangelsk region, 29.ru.

Also at The Guardian, NBC, and CNN.

See also: U.S.-Based Experts Suspect Russia Blast Involved Nuclear-Powered Missile

Update: Russia Confirms Radioactive Materials Were Involved in Deadly Blast

In a statement released at 1 a.m. Saturday, Russia's nuclear energy company, Rosatom, said five employees had died, in addition to the two military personnel previously confirmed dead, as a result of a test on Thursday morning involving "isotopic sources of fuel on a liquid propulsion unit."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @07:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @07:43PM (#878947)

    Dismantled? Is that a euphemism for exploded?

  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday August 11 2019, @08:41PM

    by Rich (945) on Sunday August 11 2019, @08:41PM (#878969) Journal

    Well, it might just have fallen apart, leaving its core exposed with a runaway reaction, melting down or sublimating away and exceeding some radiation limits for operators while doing so. Although from experience with cutting-edge military propulsion trials, we can assume there was a high probability of a rather explosive dismantling.

    Keep in mind that military reactors run weapons grade material, not that 3% enriched stuff for proliferation-panicky pussies. They don't want the dead weight around, or the hassle with regular refueling. They have refueling cycles of a quarter century, compared to the yearly top up of NPPs. That might actually help with the waste isotope mix, but hope for heaven if something goes really bad. In theory, some wave breeder might yield the same result when decade-long endurance is desired (which it is not with a reaction engine, btw), but I guess with their budget they just go the easy route. So, expect stuff to properly blow up when reaction control fails in such an arrangement.