Bellona nuclear digest. March 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: September 28, 1998
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
American spy satellites detected increased activity at the Novaya Zemlya test site last week, suggesting that Russia is preparing a nuclear bomb test. "Russia does not perform nuclear testing and does not make preparations to carry them out in the future," said deputy nuclear minister Victor Mikhailov in an interview with ITAR-TASS on Friday, September 25.
"Hydrodynamic experiments are another matter. This is a domestic issue, both Russia and the U.S. perform them," added Mikhailov.
The hydrodynamic experiments (or subcritical experiments) contain the ingredients of a nuclear bomb, but fizzle out without any thermonuclear blast and are not accompanied by radioactive emissions. The tests are used for both improving old warheads and for developing new nuclear devices. Last year, the U.S. conducted three subcritical tests at the Nevada test site, and another last Saturday. These experiments do not violate the Test Ban Treaty, signed both by Russia and the U.S.
According to Minatom’s press service chief, Yuri Bespalko, Russia has conducted subcritical tests at Novaya Zemlya since 1995. This year one such test is scheduled for late autumn. There are plans for the next year as well, say Minatom officials. No dates were provided.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has told the United Nations atomic energy watchdog that Russia plans to restart Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, currently occupied by Russian troops and technicians, fueling worries about a serious nuclear accident on the front lines of a grinding military conflict.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Brussels, Belgium – Today, the European Parliament approved the newly revised Construction Products regulation (CPR)...
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.