Nuclear Accident in Russia: US News & World Report

Russia conducted a failed missile test on a platform in the White Sea near Severodvinsk in northern Russia, killing seven workers and injuring others, but the world knows little more. Analysts suspect the test was relate to a nuclear-powered ballistic missile. “A deadly nuclear mishap with a yet-unclear fallout threatens to derail Russia's ambitions to develop a new generation of weapons capable of meeting lofty political promises and posing new dangers to the U.S., analysts say,” reports Paul Shinkman for US News & World Report. “Not only does the setback indicate the new technology remains out of Moscow's grasp – for now – but it has lost valuable and relatively scarce resources it needed to develop such weapons in the future.” The US military tried such nuclear-powered missiles early in the Cold War, but dismissed them as too costly and volatile. Analysts have expected such weapons experiments after Russian violations and US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Security analysts also express concern that Russia is secretive about nuclear mishaps, similar the Soviet response after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion that raised radiation levels throughout Europe and the northern hemisphere. – YaleGlobal