Viktor Litovkin, RIA Novosti military commentator. Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov inspected the Northern Nuclear Testing Site on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
Ivanov visited the town of Belushya, where experts responsible for testing nuclear weapons live. News agencies covering his trip noted some major changes there. Local buildings have been restored and covered with painted siding. The town's stores offer just about the same goods as those in Moscow, and their exorbitant local prices now match those in the Russian capital. The town has a fitness center and a swimming pool. Its residents, who can, at long last, dial their friends and relatives in mainland Russia, can also watch 24 TV channels.
But journalists mainly focused on Ivanov's meetings with military personnel and the testing site's research associates.
However, few people noted the fact that Ivanov and Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy, flew by helicopter to Matochkin Shar Strait, which divides the archipelago's two largest islands (and where the nuclear testing site is located), because there were no journalists aboard. However, it is easy to understand Ivanov's interest in the place.
Russian leaders have always made modernizing the country's nuclear arsenal a priority because the country must maintain a balance with the other members and soon-to-be members of the nuclear club. Nuclear weapons must be upgraded in order to deter any potential aggressor. The safe storage of nuclear warheads and their maintenance is another extremely important issue.
All these processes require constant action. Russia, which, unlike some other nuclear powers, has signed and ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), must maintain its nuclear weapons in a combat-ready state. Experts know, however, that it is very hard to assess the state of nuclear warheads without nuclear tests. Nor is it possible to develop new warheads for advanced strategic, intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.
Although these missiles are not mentioned in the press, this does not mean that they do not exist and are not being upgraded.
"We are realists and can see what is happening in the world," Ivanov told the nuclear testing site's top officials. "Russia, which honors its international CTBT commitments, maintains the testing site in working order."
Moscow implements R&D projects there all the time but does not conduct any "live" nuclear tests. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry developed technology for simulated nuclear explosions in the mid-1990s. This technology utilizes so-called sub-critical experiments, which make it possible to assess the reliability of nuclear warheads and ensure their safe storage and maintenance. These experiments guarantee that nuclear weapons are absolutely safe and combat-ready.
Experts said experiments involving nuclear-warhead mock-ups are conducted inside the same tunnels where "live" weapons used to be tested and using the same methods. Unlike real-life explosions, a nuclear-warhead mock-up contains sub-critical nuclear materials with a yield of not more than the equivalent of 0.1 micrograms of TNT. The mock-up is placed inside a special container, which is covered with bentonite clay, and the tunnel entrance is sealed off.
These experiments do not damage the environment or people's health in any way because the container makes it possible to conduct safe sub-critical tests. The simulated explosion's residue is not released into the atmosphere because chemical explosives instantly fuse bentonite clay into glass even if the container has been damaged. This impenetrable steel "cocoon" buries all nuclear-device components, seals off all geological cracks in the tunnel's tectonic structure and keeps radioactive substances inside. The so-called concrete "cork" and rock provide extra protection.
The safety of these explosions is demonstrated by the fact that all personnel involved remain only 30 meters from "ground zero." Experts said up to six sub-critical explosions are conducted on Novaya Zemlya each year. High-speed computers process their results and prove that Russia has an absolutely safe and combat-ready nuclear arsenal.
But Sergei Ivanov and Sergei Kiriyenko apparently wanted to accomplish some other objectives on Novaya Zemlya, as well.
It is widely known that Washington is working proactively on its National Missile Defense (NMD) program and is deploying missile interceptors at bases in Alaska and other parts of the United States. There are also plans to deploy them in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Successful missile interceptor tests may tip the balance in Washington's favor and provide America with unilateral advantages that would threaten global security.
The Pentagon and the White House cite the danger of possible missile strikes by so-called rogue states, including Iran and North Korea. The U.S. administration cares nothing about the fact that neither Tehran nor Pyongyang have missiles capable of reaching U.S. territory, and it would take them at least forty years to develop such missiles. Moscow therefore believes that the NMD program is primarily aimed at Russian inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and probably also those of China.
Experts know that nuclear-tipped missile interceptors are the only way to stop a massive ICBM strike. The press has repeatedly said that scientists in the Pentagon are working to create the required warheads. Washington, which has refused to ratify the CTBT document, therefore reserves the right to conduct underground tests of the new warhead.
If this happens, Russia may withdraw from the CTBT and test its new nuclear warheads. The media have repeatedly said that it intends to fit the single-warhead Topol-M (SS-27) ICBMs with three independently targetable reentry vehicles each. Each Bulava-30 (SS-NX-30) submarine-launched missile (SLBM) would have six warheads. The Topol-M and Bulava-30 missiles are to receive new "miniature" warheads because their stated throw weight is just over 1,000 kg. Sub-critical experiments and real-life underground nuclear tests may be needed to assess their efficiency. But this would happen only if the United States provides a reason.
Simulated nuclear explosions are still taking place on Novaya Zemlya. Experts estimate local background radiation levels at 7-13 microroentgen/hour, whereas Ivanov said that Moscow's Tverskaya Street registers a level of 18-25 microroentgen/hour.
