Russia prepares nuclear test site in Novaya Zemlya for new tests

Russia has prepared a nuclear test site on the island of Novaya Zemlya for new nuclear tests.

This was announced in an interview with Rear Admiral Andrey Sinitsyn, Head of the nuclear weapons testing facility, held by Russian media.

During the interview, he noted that the facility is fully prepared to resume nuclear tests, which have not been conducted on the site since October 24, 1990.

The last test was the detonation of a 70-kiloton warhead at the A13-N tunnel site at a depth of 600 meters, after which the site was partially shut down.

‘The facility is ready to resume nuclear tests ‘at any time’ if the appropriate order is given from above,’ Sinitsyn noted.

It should be noted that Western countries are actively monitoring Russian activities at this test site, as evidenced by last year’s satellite images, which showed the activities of construction services.

‘The most important thing for us is not to disrupt the fulfillment of state tasks. If the task is set to resume testing, it will be completed on time,’ he added.

He also noted that the site, as well as the laboratory and testing facilities, are ready. The personnel have also been notified of the possibility of nuclear testing.

The Russian test site, located on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, was the place where the Soviet Union conducted over 200 nuclear tests, including the explosion of the world’s most powerful nuclear bomb in 1961.

The Russian media started publishing information about the readiness to conduct new nuclear tests after the West began to actively debate the possibility of using Western weapons to strike Russian military facilities in Ukraine.

At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin also warned the West that he would directly fight Russia if Ukraine was allowed to strike Russian territory with long-range missiles made in the West and promised to take retaliatory measures.

Militarnyi previously reported that in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there was a real risk of Russia using tactical nuclear weapons.

According to William Burns, Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, the sudden breakthrough of the Ukrainian military in the northeast has raised fears that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may take extreme measures, which in turn has led to a surge in diplomatic activity.