Nyonoksa Accident

 

The Russians have had some sort of accident on the White Sea near Nyonoksa. This may or may not have involved the engine for a nuclear-powered experimental ramjet. It probably involved a small nuclear reactor, as evidenced by the radiation readings made downwind. 

The US experimented with the idea of a nuclear-powered ramjet in the Fifties and Sixties. I actually wrote a short article about the SLAM/Project Pluto idea here:

http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/JOHT/JOHT72DeathFromAbove.html

While the idea is technically feasible, even the people working on the project were glad it was never tested in actual flight. I mean, what do you do if you lose control? Just hope it crashes somewhere it won't poison tens of thousands of people?

If that is what the Russians are working on, they aren't doing very well with the concept. This appears to be just the most recent in a series of spectacularly dangerous failures. So far, though, the radiation detected outside the Nyonoksa area is minor, with rates of exposure similar to what you would get on a trans-Atlantic flight. However, it held at those levels for much longer. Also, the levels are likely to be vastly higher at the actual site. I believe the ship where the explosion happened will have to be scrapped. Perhaps even sunk entire in the deep ocean. 

More tellingly, the response of the Putin government has echoed the response of the Soviet Union during the Chernobyl tragedy. While this new accident appears to be orders of magnitude smaller, the incompetence and panic and sheer lack of clear communication even between different levels of government this has revealed promise long-term repercussions for Putin. I suspect that as the systemic problems revealed by the response to Chernobyl speeded the fall of the Soviet Union, this situation will speed the fall of Putin. 

Update: It now appears from satellite photos that the actual explosion took place on an offshore platform.