Russia's White Sea Missile Reactor + Hydrogen(?) Explosion

On Thursday night, August 8, 2019, an explosion occurred at Nyonoksa naval rocket/missile test site on the White Sea coast (map below) in extreme northwest Russia. This killed 5 and injuring 6 test site workers (reported so far). The explosion caused an unexplained spike in radiation levels. This in turn caused alarm and then a temporary or permanent evacuation of nearby Nyonoksa village. Both the test site and village are effectively under the control of the Russian Navy (Northern Fleet area).

According to the Russian nuclear agency (Rosatom) the explosion happened on a sea platform/pontoon at Nyonoksa Russian Navy rocket/missile launch facility when a "liquid-propellant engine" was tested. Those killed were allegedly working on "isotope power source”. While Russian authorities refuse to identify the missile engine tested, Russian media and the US suspect that the explosion was a test of the 9M730 Burevestnik (aka “Skyfall”), nuclear propelled, nuclear armed cruise missile. That missile is part of (evidently) a dangerously accelerated development effort due to Putin's March 1, 2018 boast that this missile is a Russian wonder weapon.

"Skyfall's" under development nuclear fission   nuclear thermal engine is centred around a mini-reactor using enriched Uranium 235, to create extreme heat. The reactor may have super-heated a "liquid-propellant" in the form of highly explosive hydrogen.

Rocket thrust is a controlled explosion. The Skyfall engine explosion may have been an uncontrolled reactor explosion alone - and/or one boosted by a super-heated hydrogen explosion. 

Western nuclear sample collection technology (like this) with computer modelling in the US, can ascertain what type of explosion took place. 

Since 1965 the Nyonoksa facility has been the site of many SLBM and SLCM tests including R-27s, R-29s and R-39s.

Josh, in Comments below, has brought to my attention that video footage of the “Nyonoksa” explosion all seems to be an unrelated east Siberian munitions dump or military warehouse explosion.

I've been trying, without success, to find fully credibale still or moving imagery of the August 2019 Nyonoksa explosion. The public media all seem to be using pre-existing video images of an east Siberian ammunition dump/warehouse explosion instead of any Nyonoksa explosion.

MAYBE NYONOKSA WAS A FULLY SUBMERGED TEST WITH NO PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE VISION OR SOUND?

Alarm and Confusion

There was major initial alarm and confusion in Nyonoksa village (2km from the test site). This was heightened by the Russian Government issuing contradictory Press Releases on a Little Increase In Background Radiation and then a Major Release (Evacuate Nyonoksa Now).

(Map courtesy Moscow Times, Reuters and TASS).
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Severodvinsk and Arkhangelsk

Residents of the naval base/shipyard cities of Severodvinsk and Arkhangelsk may have been close enough to see the flash and hear the Nyonoksa test site explosion. Confusion continues in those cities regarding  how dangerous the Russian Government admitted radiation is and what to do about it.

In mid August 2019 “Russia's state weather service said radiation levels spiked in the Russian city of Severodvinsk, about [47] kilometres west of Nyonoksa, by up to 16 times [greater than average background radiation level] following the explosion.”

“There are reports of panic buying of iodine drops in Severodvinsk [and Arkhangelsk]. Emergency officials reported a spike in background radiation. The White Sea bay where both the shipbuilding port and the regional capital, Arkhangelsk, are located has been ordered closed for swimming and fishing because of the presence of toxic rocket fuel [or, more secretly, radiation].”

Pete