5 Russian Nuclear Scientists Buried After Rocket Explosion

Thousands of people have attended the funerals of five Russian nuclear researchers killed in an explosion as they tested a new nuclear-powered engine.The five were buried in Sarov, a closed city some 375 kilometers east of Moscow that has served as a center for Russia’s nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s.The blast occurred on August 8 at the navy’s testing range in Nyonoksa in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region.Russia’s Defense Ministry initially said the explosion killed two people and injured six others, but the state Rosatom atomic power agency acknowledged later that five of its employees were killed and three injured.The coffins were displayed at Sarov’s main square before being transported to a cemetery.Rosatom director Aleksei Likhachev praised the victims as “true heroes” and “the pride of our country.”Rosatom said the blast occurred during the testing of a “nuclear-isotope power source” for a rocket engine.The blast was followed by a 30-minute radiation spike in Severodvinsk, a city 40 kilometers east of the Nyonoksa test range, by the White Sea, local officials said, adding that it didn’t pose any health hazards.The Defense Ministry insisted that no radiation had been released.Neither the Defense Ministry nor Rosatom identified the type of rocket that blew up during the test, saying only that it had liquid propellant.Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, a former prime minister and Rosatom chief, said at the funeral that the victims were aware of the danger, but “took the risk, realizing that no one else would do the job better than them.”Kiriyenko said they would be posthumously awarded with top medals.The military was also shaken by the deaths of 14 sailors killed in a fire on one of the navy’s research submersibles in July 1.Military and government authorities have given scant details about the incident, which the Defense Ministry said occurred in the Barents Sea and was one of Russia’s worst submarine disasters in years.Some information for this report was provided by AP.  
…