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Radiation Monitoring Stations Offline After Mysterious Russian Blast

VOA News

   Four radiation monitoring stations in Russia have gone offline after a
   mysterious blast at a Russian missile testing facility on Aug. 8,
   according to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

   CTBTO, an independent group that operates an international network of
   radiation monitoring stations, said two Russian stations closest to the
   blast site went offline two days after the unexplained explosion and
   reports of radiation spikes. Two other stations went silent on Aug. 13.

   It is not clear what caused the outage or whether the stations were
   tampered with by Russia.

   Russian officials told the CTBTO they were having "communication and
   network issues," a spokeswoman for the organization said Monday.

   Russia's state nuclear agency has acknowledged that five nuclear
   workers were killed in the explosion, which occurred during a rocket
   engine test near the White Sea in far northern Russia.

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