Ukraine concerned about lack of monitoring data after radioactive incident in Russia

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk made a corresponding statement during the 53rd session of the CTBTO Working Group B, ongoing at the UN Office in Vienna from August 26 to September 6, 2019, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukraine is concerned about the lack of data available from particular IMS stations after radioactive spike caused by the undefined event near Nyonoksa, Russia on August 8, 2019. These stations are located on the path of the potential radioactive plume and, apparently, should have made measurements, necessary for obtaining the full picture of the event detected on August 8 by other types of IMS stations (3 seismic, 1 infrasound)," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine said.

Tsymbaliuk reiterated Ukraine’s stable position on the necessity of building up a technologically advanced verification system which remains a prerequisite for credible and effective monitoring of Treaty compliance, though it still has not come into force.

It was emphasized that international efforts to ensure collective security by large depend on the Treaty’s entry into force.

It became known about the explosion in Arkhangelsk region of Russia on August 8. Seven people - five specialists of the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation and two soldiers – were killed and several people were injured in the incident.

On August 10, Rosatom confirmed that several of its employees had been killed during testing of an “isotope power source in a liquid propulsion system.” The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that no harmful substances were released in the air.

At the meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on August 19, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said that there was no increase in background radiation and the incident at the military training ground posed no threat.

According to Nils Bøhmer, the head of research and development at the government body Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning, it was a nuclear reactor, not a rocket, that exploded at a Russian military base on August 8.

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