MOSCOW — Russia has resumed sharing data from radiation monitoring stations in Siberia after some were taken offline following a deadly explosion at a missile range, a nuclear weapons watchdog said T
uesday, while an American expert said the fact that more than one Russian site went offline at the same time suggests it was not the work of Mother Nature.
William Tobey, a former deputy administrator at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, said it was"at least an odd coincidence" that the Russian sensors stopped transmitting data about the same time as the explosion occurred. While the Russian Defense Ministry said no radiation had been released in a rocket engine explosion, officials in the nearby city of Severodvinsk reported a brief rise in radiation levels. The contradiction drew comparisons to Soviet attempts to cover up the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the world's worst nuclear disaster.
The authorities said the brief increase in radiation didn't pose any health dangers. In fact, the announced peak levels are lower than the cosmic radiation that plane passengers are exposed to on longer flights. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency that it is Russia's choice, not an obligation, to share radiation monitoring data under the treaty. He also noted that the international nuclear watchdog's mission is to monitor the global nuclear test ban, not missile tests like the one conducted in Nyonoksa.
The U.S. worked to develop a nuclear-powered missile in the 1960s under Project Pluto, but the idea was discarded as impractical and risky. Tobey said Russia's apparent revival of the concept raises significant risks.
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