Nuclear blast in Russia kills five nuclear engineers, causes increased radiation

Thousands of people have attended the funerals of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by an explosion as Russia tested a new rocket engine, a tragedy that caused a large increase of radiation and raised questions about a secretive weapons programme. According to Russian government, radiation levels around the site in Severodvinsk were estimated up to 16 times higher than the norm.

The state-controlled Rosatom nuclear energy company said the explosion occurred while the engineers were testing a “nuclear isotope power source” for a rocket engine. The company said the victims were on a sea platform testing a rocket engine and were thrown into the sea by the explosion.

Source: AlJazeera