This archive report was first published on 10 August 2019.
On August 10, 2019, Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom reported that five of its staff members had been killed in an accident during tests on a military site in northern Russia.
The accident occurred during tests on a liquid propellant rocket engine, according to Rosatom, which cited a brief spike in radiation levels in the nearby city of Severodvinsk.
Initially, Russian authorities had said that two people had been killed in the incident and that a nearby city had reported a rise in radiation levels when the rocket engine blew up at a testing site in the Archangelsk region on Thursday.
Local residents have been stocking up iodine used to reduce the effects of radiation exposure after the accident, regional media have reported.
Greenpeace has cited data from the Emergencies Ministry that it said showed radiation levels had risen 20 times above the normal level in Severodvinsk around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Nyonoksa.
