Russia's Nuclear Rocket Accident

The explosion occurred on August 8, 2019. The Daily Beast reported yesterday:

U.S. authorities are scrambling to clarify exactly what led to what is now confirmed as the explosion of a small nuclear reactor in the White Sea on Aug. 8 at a Russian research institute. Russian atomic agency Rosatom initially said the explosion was a rocket-engine mishap and denied that radiation levels spiked in the atmosphere shortly after the explosion. The New York Times reports that U.S. intelligence officials suspect the blast involved the so-called SSC-X-9 Skyfall nuclear cruise missile that Russian Presdient [sic] Vladimir Putin has warned could reach any corner of the earth. Late Sunday, officials at the testing site, where five of the dead scientists were stationed, confirmed to the Times that a small nuclear reactor was involved in what is likely the Kremlin’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

And from the BBC, yesterday:

      Five Russian nuclear engineers who died in a rocket engine explosion have been buried in Sarov, a closed town 373km (232 miles) east of Moscow, where nuclear warheads are made.

     The Russian state nuclear agency, Rosatom, said the experts had been testing a nuclear-powered engine. But it gave no further technical details.

     The test was on an offshore platform in the Arctic, at a naval test range.

     Russia has been testing a nuclear-powered cruise missile, "Burevestnik".

     But officials did not specify the system involved in Thursday's disastrous test.

     The explosion was followed by a 40-minute radiation spike in Severodvinsk, a city 40km (25 miles) east of the Nyonoksa test range, by the White Sea.

      Severodvinsk officials said radiation in the city reached 2 microsieverts per hour, then fell back to the normal 0.11 microsieverts. Both levels are too small to cause radiation sickness.

      Three other engineers were injured in the blast, and are now in hospital, Rosatom said.

     Experts in Russia and the West say the test was most likely linked to the 9M730 Burevestnik, meaning "petrel", a type of seabird. President Vladimir Putin described the missile in a speech to the Russian parliament in March 2018. Nato has given it the designation SSC-X-9 Skyfall.

Although Russia initially reported that it was a chemical rocket that blew up, they are at least publicly admitting now that it was a nuclear rocket, unlike what the USAF has done in the past.

      It's also been no secret that Russia was seeking to develop a nuclear rocket, as Russia announced its intent to do so in November 2018. The advantages to a nuclear rocket are that, "[w]ith its higher exhaust velocities and greater specific impulse, a nuclear rocket could carry larger payloads or smaller payloads at greater speeds."

     What I find the most interesting, though, was President Trump tweeting:

The United States is learning much from the failed missile explosion in Russia. We have similar, though more advanced, technology. The Russian “Skyfall” explosion has people worried about the air around the facility, and far beyond. Not good!

(Bold added) (H/t Anonymous Conservative).