CBRN event in Russian Federation on Thu 8th August 2019

The fatal August 8 accident caused a brief spike in radiation levels in the nearby city of Severodvinsk. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said the incident occurred during testing of what he called promising new weapons systems.

A cloud of inert radioactive gases was formed as a result of the disintegration of isotopes and caused a brief increase in radiation in Severodvinsk, Rosghidromet indicates in a statement.

They were isotopes of Strontium-91, Barium-139 and Lanthanum-140, which have a half-life of 9.3 hours and 83 minutes, 12.8 days and 40 hours, respectively, according to the release.

Russia's Rosatom nuclear agency said five employees were killed and three injured in an explosion during a missile test on an offshore platform involving an 'isotopic energy source'.

American nuclear experts suspect that the incident occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

Norway's geological monitoring agency said on Friday that the explosion that killed the Russian scientists was followed by a second explosion two hours later and that this was likely the source of a radiation spike. The second explosion probably came from a rocket powered by radioactive fuel, the Norsar agency indicated, even though the governor of the Arkhangelsk region where the explosion took place denied reports of a second deflagration.

At the present time, in the samples... from Severodvinsk and Arkhangelsk, no technogenic radionuclides were detected. The situation related to radiation has stabilized', claims Rosghidromet, quoted by Russian press agencies.

At the same time, more than a week after the explosion, Roshydromet had acknowledged that radiation levels in the city of Severodvinsk had increased by up to 16 times on August 8, following an accident that Russian authorities said involved a missile test on a platform in the sea.

Earlier, doctors in Arkhangelsk declared that Cesium-137 was discovered in one of their colleagues who helped the injured following the explosion in Severodvinsk. The relevant authorities explained that he had previously been on holiday in Thailand and had eaten 'crabs from Fukushima', according to the independent portal Meduza, although he denied that he had spent his holiday outside of Russia.

At the same time, medical personnel in Arkhangelsk told the BBC that they were not told that the wounded on the sea platform near the Nenioksa base had been exposed to radiation and realized this after examining them, without realizing it. taken precautions in advance.

It is not very clear what the Russian army tested on August 8 on the maritime platform in the White Sea. According to American intelligence services, it would be the cruise missile with nuclear propulsion system 'Burevestnik' ('Albatross', SSC-X-9 Skyfall, in NATO coding). Military experts, quoted by the independent Russian biweekly Novaia Gazeta, however, maintain that it was a 'Skif' deep-sea ballistic missile.