Russia

Russia Tells Nuclear Watchdog: Radiation From Blast Is ‘None of Your Business’

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Officials shut out international oversight panel, four monitoring stations are now silent, and Putin insists there’s no radiation threat from Aug. 8 reactor blast.

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Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Russia has told the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization that the nuclear-reactor explosion at a White Sea missile test site in early August is none of their business. The news came as two additional Russian monitoring stations designed to warn about nuclear radiation threats have gone silent after the mysterious Aug. 8 blast at the site this month, according to The Wall Street Journal. Four monitoring stations are now down, which is alarming experts who suspect Russia is attempting to cover up what really happened and keep details about the weapon being tested under wraps. “Experts continue to reach out to our collaborators in Russia to resume operations as expediently as possible,” Lassina Zerbo, executive director of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization, told the Journal. The Kremlin claims nothing is being covered up. “There is no threat here, no increase in the [radiation] background exists either,” Putin said on a state visit to France on Monday. “We don’t see any serious changes there, but preventive measures are being taken so there are no surprises.”

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

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