They fought and died for their homeland on the scientific front
On August 8, as a result of an accident on a testing offshore platform in the White Sea near the village of Nenyoksa, Arkhangelsk Region, five scientists were killed (three more were injured) - employees of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics from Sarov (Arzamas-16): 43-year-old Alexey Vyushin - developer of scientific equipment, programmer, 50-year-old Evgeniy Korotaev, electronics engineer, 40-year-old test engineer Vyacheslav Lipshev, 46-year-old test engineer Sergei Pichugin and 71-year-old head of the institute's research and testing department Vladislav Yanovsky. He was one of the most experienced specialists at the nuclear center, where he worked for 47 years.
As noted in Rosatom, Vladislav Yanovsky was an honored worker of the nuclear industry, repeatedly awarded with departmental awards...
Almost immediately after the tragedy, rumors spread about a “new Chernobyl” on the White Sea, an exploded reactor and a radiation threat looming over the population of nearby areas. Residents of Arkhangelsk and the region rushed headlong to pharmacies to purchase iodine preparations.
Vladislav Yanovsky and Sergey Pichugin.
However, cool heads and reasonable voices drew public attention to the fact that there was no emergency evacuation of the population from the accident zone, and the environmental services of the states closest to the Arkhangelsk region, in particular, NATO member Norway, did not sound the alarm either.
Evgeny Korotaev and Vyacheslav Lipishev.
Alexey Vyushin.
The subsequent meager explanations from Rosatom about what actually happened on the offshore test platform near the village of Nenyoksa did not shed much light on the incident, but still gave food for thought to specialists.
So, according to Rosatom, nuclear scientists from Sarov were testing the latest weapons, for which they had been preparing for more than a year.
“A chain of tragic accidents, uncertainties. From preliminary analysis, we saw that the dead scientists were fighting to take control of the situation. But, unfortunately, this failed,” Valentin Kostyukov, director of the nuclear center, explained to the media hot on the heels.
The public relations department of the Rosatom state corporation clarified that after the completion of the tests, the rocket fuel ignited, followed by detonation. The blast wave threw several employees into the sea. The search continued as long as there was hope of finding survivors.
According to the scientific director of the nuclear center, Vyacheslav Solovyov, the scientists carried out tests on the offshore platform in the interests of the Ministry of Defense as part of the VNIIEF scientific program. “One of the directions is the creation of small-sized energy sources using radioactive fissile materials,” Solovyov said in the Center’s official video. He also noted that similar developments are underway abroad: “US scientists have tested a small-sized nuclear reactor with a power of several kilowatts.”
This refers to the successful testing by the Americans of the KRUSTY microreactor, carried out as part of the Kilopower project.
In fact, the scientist’s not entirely successful parallels about Russian and American radioactive energy sources served as the reason for whipping up hysteria around the “reactor explosion” on social networks. In the event of a microreactor explosion in the vicinity of Nenyosa, a local Chernobyl would indeed have formed, which in reality did not happen.
In the first hours after the emergency, local authorities informed residents of surrounding villages that there had indeed been a short-term increase in radiation. This was also confirmed by Deputy Director of the Sarov Nuclear Center, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Chernyshev, who reported that a surge in radiation was also noted in Severodvinsk, located 30 km from the site of the disaster. “We established by direct measurements at Sevmash (shipbuilding plant) that the background radiation increase was twofold and lasted no more than an hour. Neither our experts nor external experts registered any residual radioactive contamination,” the scientist assured the public.
It is clear that there was no reactor on the offshore platform. The dead scientists were testing the engines of a new combat missile that used electricity generated by a radioisotope generator. The “atomic battery” scheme was well developed back in the USSR (the “Romashka”, “Topaz”, “Efir-MA”, “Orion-1”, “Gong”, “Gorn” and others) installations, in which the internal ampoule with radioactive isotope is reliably protected by a special casing, which simultaneously dissipates excess heat into the surrounding space.
Cosmic “atomic battery” “Topaz”.
Inside the generator there is an extremely radioactive isotope (plutonium-238, americium-241, strontium-90), artificially produced in a special nuclear reactor. The activity of the isotope is so great that due to the constantly ongoing atomic decay, it is in a red-hot state. Through the use of thermion converters, the heat from radioactive decay is directly converted into electricity, without pumps or other moving parts. The efficiency of such power plants is low (up to 10%), however, while being relatively cheap, they are compact and capable of supplying electricity to various installations for a long period, sometimes decades - it all depends on the working isotope chosen for the “battery”.
For clarity, we can mention that radioisotope generators have flown into space dozens, if not hundreds of times, have proven themselves on lunar rovers, mars rovers, and on the Voyager space probes, “atomic batteries” have been powering devices for 40 years and warming the insides of the devices, despite to a noticeable drop in power.
Soviet “atomic battery” “Beta-M”.
Specialists from MEPhI, who have extensive experience in developing “atomic batteries,” suggest that the explosion could have resulted in partial destruction of the ampoule and a small release of a radioactive isotope, which emergency services dealt with as quickly as possible.
The press and the public are at a loss: what kind of rocket is this that requires a radioisotope generator to operate? After all, previously these exotic energy sources were widely used almost exclusively at automatic interplanetary stations.
Apparently, the dead scientists were testing the power plant of a top secret and very mysterious, but really existing, Russian bottom-based Skif missile.
Skif missile in a special container.
According to open sources, the Skif missile is an improved version of the Liner or Sineva sea-based ballistic missiles. If the military-political situation for Russia worsens, a specially equipped nuclear submarine - presumably the Sarov - can carry a number of Skifs and lay them on the bottom in certain areas of the World Ocean in anticipation of the hour.
Nuclear deep-sea station "Sarov".
The main interest in the Skif is not the rocket itself, but a special container in which the rocket is protected from the pressure of the water column and corrosion. It is assumed that, after receiving a signal, the container takes a vertical position and floats up from the bottom to a depth of 50 meters, after which the rocket launches.
Proposed type of the Skif missile. It is possible that this is a Liner rocket.
Even more interesting is how the Skif receives a signal to start, since the water column absorbs any electromagnetic radiation, and from the description of the Skif it is known that it does not need command submarines nearby, whereas at depth it is able to wait in the wings until 10 years.
Actually, this explains why the rocket designers chose a “nuclear battery” rather than short-lived chemical batteries as a source of electricity and heat for the Skif.
To avoid speculation, I would like to emphasize once again: rocket fuel, not a nuclear device, exploded on a test platform in the Nenyoksa area. I would like to advise obscurantists and alarmists who like to speculate from abstract humanism on topics like “why is this necessary if people are dying” to sit by the splinter, weave bast shoes and not risk anything, since progress is often a cruel phenomenon.
The scientists who died as heroes, who can only be called soldiers of science, were buried with all honors in Sarov on August 12. A two-day mourning period has been declared in the closed city. The leadership of the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov submitted an appeal to the Russian government to nominate test participants for high government awards.
In conclusion, I would like to say that it is precisely such selfless scientists, like soldiers, like workers, who should be the heroes of our time. It is necessary to remember them not only at funeral services...
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