Five nuclear engineers buried after rocket explosion
MOSCOW (AP):
THOUSANDS OF Russians on Monday attended the funerals of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by an explosion as they tested a new rocket engine, a tragedy that fuelled radiation fears and raised new questions about a secretive weapons programme.
The engineers, who died on Thursday, were laid to rest on Monday in Sarov, which hosts Russia’s main nuclear weapons research centre, where they worked. Flags flew at half-staff in the city, located 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of Moscow, which has served as a base for Russia’s nuclear weapons programme since the late 1940s. The coffins were displayed at Sarov’s main square before being driven to a cemetery.
The Defence Ministry initially reported that the explosion at the navy’s testing range, near the village of Nyonoksa in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region, killed two people and injured six others. The state-controlled Rosatom nuclear corporation then said on the weekend that the blast also killed five of its workers and injured three others. It’s not clear what the final toll is.