The Russian military and political leadership is considering the expediency of starting preparations for the resumption of nuclear tests. But the very technical possibility of such tests is provided by a nuclear test site built during the Soviet era and still operating on Novaya Zemlya. How does it work and what needs to be done to resume testing today?
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov believes that Russia should "immediately" begin "preparations for full-scale nuclear tests." He stated this at an operational meeting held by the President of Russia with members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
The head of the military department linked his proposals to the actions of the United States in the nuclear sphere: "These actions clearly indicate Washington's active buildup of strategic offensive weapons." According to the minister, it is necessary "to act adequately in response to Washington's steps in the interests of ensuring the security of our country." As a result, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to consider the expediency of starting preparations for nuclear tests.
As you know, Russia's only nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya is generally ready to resume its mission. This is a truly unique place, both from the point of view of the climate and from the point of view of the human labor applied here.
Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between the Barents and Kara Seas, consisting of two large islands – the Northern and Southern. The Arctic climate is extremely harsh here. The temperature in winter can be below -40 degrees Celsius, and the average temperatures of the warmest month, August, range from 2.5 degrees (on the North Island) to 6.5 degrees (on the South Island). The polar night and heavy winds sometimes led to tragedies. It happened that people lost their bearings and froze to death even in the center of the training ground – in Belushye Guba, attacks by polar bears were a frequent event.
Formally, the test site was divided into three technological sites where tests were conducted: zone A (Chernaya Guba area, underwater and surface explosions), zone B (in the area of the Matochkin Shar Strait, underground explosions were carried out in tunnels); zone C (Sukhoi Nos Peninsula): ground and air tests of nuclear explosions. In particular, the Tsar Bomba, a powerful 50-megaton thermonuclear charge, was tested here.
Difficult climatic and weather conditions allow us to work at the landfill for only a few months.
During Soviet times, when tests were conducted regularly, direct preparation for each underground explosion (since 1963, our country has conducted only such tests) began in July, the experiments themselves were conducted from August to October, and extremely rarely in November. Such restrictions are primarily related to navigation: the Matochkin Shar Strait is usually cleared of ice in mid-June, and only then can the materials necessary for preparation be delivered to the landfill. At the same time, sufficient daylight is provided for construction work.
Let's explain: an underground nuclear explosion is carried out either in wells (vertical shafts) – when testing new weapon systems, or in an adit (horizontal tunnel) – to study the damaging factors of the explosion. According to American data, at the turn of the 90s, the cost of preparing a vertical mine was 20-30 million dollars, for an adit - 40-70 million due to the larger volume and increased complexity of the work. At that time, the preparation of one test took at least 18 months.
According to the test participants, the tunnel is a kind of subway tunnel, equipped with rails and cable channels. The tunnel can reach tens of kilometers in length.
This gives a clear idea of the scope of work and the required amount of materials, which are mostly imported from the Mainland. It would be unreasonably expensive to deliver them, for example, by icebreakers.
The preparation of the test sites was carried out by units of military builders, as well as freelance civilian miners who carried out tunneling. An airfield was located near the village of Belushya Guba, where a regiment of fighter-interceptors was based, protecting the training ground, a squadron of transport aircraft and a mixed special-purpose squadron, whose pilots performed all flights inside the archipelago. They carried out aerial and ice reconnaissance, communications relay, transportation of people and cargo, search and rescue flights, air sampling, and biological samples. In other words, they provided aviation support for nuclear tests and the operation of the test site.
Each trial included a number of experiments. For example, checking not only the damaging effects of a particular charge, but also, say, the radiation protection of armored vehicles, the effects of radiation on plants, and so on. Millions of different sensors were located in the tunnel itself, and at the mouth of the shaft leading into it there was an equipment complex that receives the collected data.
Great attention was paid to compliance with environmental safety measures during testing. However, there have also been emergencies – the release of radioactive products to the surface. Sometimes it even required work to deactivate the hardware complex. Such a threat required a thorough assessment of the meteorological situation in order to prevent their spread beyond the landfill in the event of the release of radioactive gases. In other words, not only the conduct of nuclear tests themselves, but also the preparation for them is a complex and expensive undertaking.
The last nuclear explosion at the Novaya Zemlya test site took place on October 24, 1990, and its conduct was truly dramatic. The nuclear test in the tunnel at the facility designated as A-13H, in accordance with a government decree, was to be conducted in the fall of 1989. By this time, everything was prepared – the charge itself, sensors, and other necessary equipment were installed. However, there was no order to conduct the experiment, since the head of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear explosions.
The resulting uncertainty has put the landfill workers, both military personnel and civilian specialists, in a difficult position. It was necessary to guard the facility ready for testing, provide deployed equipment and a command post, despite the onset of the polar night and increased frosts.
In the spring of 1990, a new attack arose. Novaya Zemlya has always been the object of increased attention of enemy intelligence services, but the high-security regime, strict counterintelligence measures and vigilant security left them no chance. However, the "new thinking" and the paralysis of the political will of the then leadership led to the fact that the ship "Greenpeace" entered the area of the Matochkin Shar Strait. Moreover, the "activists" landed troops on the shore and managed to get to the mouth site of the A-37A facility, where tests were conducted in 1987. There they were detained by the security service of the regime.
Later it became known that among the "greens" there were CIA officers who took away soil samples from the site on their clothes.
Meanwhile, the impending winter called into question not only the conduct of the prepared test, but also safety issues – deployed equipment could not overwinter and fail. But finally, permission was granted, and the last nuclear explosion took place on Novaya Zemlya.
After the collapse of the USSR, the landfill began to decline, some units and services were relocated to the mainland, the remaining barely had enough strength to maintain its "survivability". Fortunately, in 1995, the landfill began to be used for non-nuclear explosions and other dangerous tests. This made it possible to preserve the infrastructure and the scientific and laboratory base. Today, great attention is being paid to ensuring the safety of landfill facilities and maintaining secrecy. And there is every reason for this: enemy satellites are operating on Novaya Zemlya, spy planes are making constant flights. But air surveillance posts, anti-aircraft systems, and electronic warfare calculations are constantly on alert in the archipelago, and the adjacent water area is continuously scanned. The security of the training ground is carried out by special forces.
The personnel of the Central Test Site are currently involved in conducting and providing non-nuclear explosive experiments, and they also continue to work to maintain the laboratory and experimental base and infrastructure of the test site in readiness for full-scale testing activities. However, resuming testing after such a long break will undoubtedly require more effort than preparing another experiment during the Soviet era. Most likely, new equipment will be required that is more appropriate to today's realities. Unsurprisingly,
Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, clarified that "it takes from several months to several years to prepare nuclear tests, depending on their type."
It is possible that our opponents' initial situation is even more complicated than ours. The American media, citing experts and former employees of the only US nuclear test site in Nevada, indicate that the "experience of physical testing" has been lost. And the landfill itself needs major repairs. The experts who checked it called the equipment there a "rust pit." If this is the case, then we are in the best starting conditions. Although an attempt to spread disinformation cannot be ruled out.
Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia is not going to violate its obligations under the CTBT, but if the parties to the agreement decide to conduct nuclear tests, the Russian side will respond in kind. To be sure of the possibility of such an answer, the functioning of the nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya has been maintained for all these decades.
Boris Jerelievsky
