
Russia Says Small Nuclear Reactor Blew Up in Deadly Accident - tantalor
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-12/russian-says-small-nuclear-reactor-blew-up-in-deadly-accident
======
hairytrog
Cruise missiles are generally short range. The main advantage of a nuclear
cruise missile is its added long range and maintained ability to stay mostly
undetectable and unstoppable to missile defense since they can travel at low
altitude.

The other advantage is political. These missiles take a long a time to reach
destination, and the time can be extended by a prolonged voyage (circle the
globe a few times). The only people who can disarm the warhead are the
enemies. You're not going to blow up your enemies while the missile is in the
air. It's a great apolitical tool. Launch a missile and everyone starts
talking and giving in to your demands.

Better article: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-nuclear-agency-
confirms...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-nuclear-agency-confirms-
deaths-during-missile-test-11565446468)

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orbital-decay
What a clickbaity headline and a sloppy reporting job, didn't expect that from
Bloomberg. The title says reactor but the content implies RTG, which is
hazardous but many times less radioactive, and is completely different from a
nuclear reactor. Also a bunch of unrelated facts, they even managed to mention
Kursk disaster somehow. (I guess that's inevitable when there's little to no
info available but you still need to write something)

~~~
that_jojo
Lets not forget that Bloomberg was also the publication that ran with and
defended that whole 'Supermicro is totally getting spy hardware added to their
motherboards by the Chinese government even though no one can seem to locate
it' story. Something's... possibly askew with them of late.

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mhandley
Sounds similar to Project Pluto:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto)

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Havoc
>iodine, which is believed to help prevent the thyroid gland from absorbing
radiation.

"Believed to"? I thought that was accepted as fact?

~~~
your-nanny
Is radioactive iodine the only radioactive isotope we'd expect to be exposed
to.at lethal doses?

~~~
AlphaGeekZulu
All kinds of radioactive isotopes might enter or attach to your body in many
ways as consequence of a nuclear accident. Any radioactive particle that gets
close to or into your body will cause some damage depending on the type
(alpha, beta, gamma), strength of radiation and duration of exposure.

If you are not exposed to an immediately lethal dose, the damage in the body
is a statistical thing. The longer and the more intense the radioactive
particles remain on or in your body, the more likely is the chance for a
serious health issue. The strategy is to remove radioactive particles as fast
as possible to minimize the probability of damage.

Radioactive particles on your skin can be washed away. (This is not so fun as
the every-day shower).

Radioactive particles that you inhaled are a really bad thing, I do not know
how to deal with radioactive particles in the lungs (except wearing filter
masks in time).

Particles that entered the body with food will be excreted within a couple of
hours.

But: your body has an organ - the thyroid gland - which collects iodine from
your food and stores it long time. A radioactive form of iodine - iodine 131 -
is a common byproduct of nuclear contamination. If this gets stored in your
body, it remains long enough to dramatically raise the chance of cancer.
Therefore you fill your thyroid gland with non-radioactive iodine, hopefully
BEFORE your body gets contaminated with radioactive iodine.

So the special thing with iodine 131 is, that it is common, that the body does
not make a difference to nonradioactive iodine and there is an organ that
stores it.

By taking iodine pills, you only improve probabilities on that one factor!
There are plenty other ways to take damage from radioactive accidents.

~~~
jfengel
Has this actually been tried? I know there's no way to do a proper controlled
test, at least in humans ("OK,you take this pill, and you take this placebo.
Now, here, breathe this."), but is there any naturally-occurring data that
might imply that this actually works? Say, distributing pills in a place with
a natural radioactive iodine source, or counting up thyroid cancers after
Chernobyl and comparing people-who-took-pills to people who didn't?

I assume there is at least a rat study.

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koolba
> The blast occurred Aug. 8 during a test of a missile that used “isotope
> power sources” on an offshore platform in the Arkhangelsk region, close to
> the Arctic Circle, Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom said over the
> weekend. The Defense Ministry initially reported two were killed in the
> accident, which it said involved testing of a liquid-fueled missile engine.
> The ministry didn’t mention the nuclear element.

Maybe a stupid question but why would they be anywhere near the missile during
the actual testing?

Or was this some kind of premature explosion while configuring or fueling it?

~~~
hos234
> Maybe a stupid question but why would they be anywhere near the missile
> during the actual testing?

They are Russians
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3604355/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3604355/)

~~~
C1sc0cat
Very poor H&S regime unfortunately - its a bit grim but in this case you hope
that the fatalities died quickly.

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your-nanny
This weapon, and Project Pluto, makes me so angry. It's very existence is a
crime against humanity.

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nesadi
I don't really see what Russia or the US has to gain from designing new kinds
of nuclear weapons. They already have the capability to wipe out whatever
they're aiming at.

~~~
lmilcin
This is about nuclear reactor and not nuclear warhead. Nuclear reactors are
used to produce electricity and/or heat and to breed radioactive elements.

~~~
baybal2
If you read the news, it is much more akin to a nuclear engine, not a reactor.

Either powered by actual expensive artificial isotopes with enough activity to
power an engine, OR they actually broke the ban and had it running on pu239
(which would also make its fuel reserve a nice yield booster)

~~~
lmilcin
Nuclear engine IS a nuclear reactor.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor)

"A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to
initiate and control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction."

Nuclear engine is a device used to initate and control a self-sustained
nuclear chain reaction.

This is in contrast to nuclear bomb which initiates but does not control the
chain reaction. Once the reaction is started nothing else can be done with it
(ie. there is no control involved other than setting up initial parameters).

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romantomjak
Makes one ponder whether russians don't know what they're doing or are others
simply better at hiding failures. Scared to think what else is going on that,
us, regular people are not aware of. I feel like one of these days some
government is going to announce "You didn't ask for it, but we poisoned the
environment, ozone layer is gone and water is not fit for drinking, BUT! We
have an answer to century long dick measurement contest!"

 _puts on tin foil hat_

~~~
MichaelApproved
Rest assured, it's hard to hide nuclear accidents. There are so many sensors
around the world which are owned by various governments and private entities.
Any significant radiation leak will be detected and announced.

If you're worried about water contamination, you should focus your concerns on
conventional chemicals. Oil drilling, coal mining, and manufacturing waste are
the ones causing decades worth of damage.

~~~
randomsearch
That’s reassuring if true, do you have evidence to back it up?

~~~
tgragnato
If you are asking for open data, then there's radioactive@home (based on
BOINC).

But in this case none of the detectors is sensitive enough or sufficiently
near the White Sea.

[http://radioactiveathome.org/map/](http://radioactiveathome.org/map/)

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ptah
wow, it killed the > “elite of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center,”

>It caused a brief spike in radiation in the nearby port city of Severodvinsk,
according to a statement on the local administration’s website that was later
removed. The Russian military said radiation levels were normal but disclosed
few details about the incident.

News of the explosion set off in nearby cities and towns a run on iodine,
which is believed to help prevent the thyroid gland from absorbing radiation.
Norway said it had stepped up radiation monitoring after the incident but
hadn’t detected anything abnormal.

is it really worth this large amount of risk if even the top experts in the
field can get it so very wrong

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liberte82
Just a small one

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tomatotomato37
Sounds like a RTG to me, though the only reason I can think of to put one on
the missile itself is if you want to park it in orbit as some sort of first
strike weapon

~~~
gnode
It's a nuclear propelled cruise missile
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik)),
conceptually similar to SLAM
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missile)).

An RTG makes little sense for earth orbit, because there's plentiful sunlight,
and solar panels can be used. RTGs are only really suited to missions far away
from the sun.

------
ryanmercer
"The war machine springs to life, opens up one eager eye, focusing it on the
sky, where 99 red balloons go by."

Never did I think my favorite 80s song would become relevant in my life.

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ptah
nuclear is dangerous. there are no headlines about solar or wind farms causing
deadly accidents like this EDIT: that can impact several cities in a region

~~~
gnode
Solar and wind make for poor cruise missile propulsion systems.

~~~
ptah
sure, but if even the top russian experts die in a test then surely it is not
suitable for normal power generation

~~~
gnode
A cruise missile nuclear jet engine is indeed not suitable for normal power
generation.

