Russian ammo depot explosion near Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk

[Stefan Leahu]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49239060

A few big explosions at a russian arms depot in Siberia, near Achinsk. Presumably not started by the forest fires, according to russian sources. One video of it is already doing the rounds on the net as being the video from the nuclear accident a few days later, being portrayed as a nuclear explosion. Since that nuclear accident might have its own thread, the tl;dr is that russia has been testing some sort of nuclear-powered ramjet for a while ,and at least this one failed, killing several scientists and triggering a radiation spike of 200 mSv in nearby Severodvinsk. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49319160 .

Now, for the alleged nuke video :
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCSF9fn-qBI


And several other angles :


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXJGwmzRSiU


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m0fDeQl94c


It's easy to see why the conspiracists will have a field day with this. Even for me it's hard to dismiss it completely, with the initial flash of light and the distinct appearance of the mushroom cloud , suggesting the main cause was a single big detonation, despite the other stuff getting flung outwards. The video was taken from around 4 km away, so if it was a nuke, it was a really small one (perhaps a fizzle?). But then again, Russia is actively developing small nukes , so....
The shockwave...I must admit, I've seen youtube videos of big blasts, and none seemed to have this big a shockwave. But then again, judging by the low clouds, it was a pretty humid day, thus making pressure changes easier to observe.

Since there's no video so far of the nuclear mishap near Severodvinsk, I wouldn't exclude the conspiracists saying that it was simply a cover up for the fallout from the Achinsk explosion.

 

[Agent K]

Russia has had a number of mishaps lately: the arms depot explosion caused by "human error", and a second explosion at the same place caused by lightning after the first explosion knocked out the lightning rod. Before that, there was the fire on the nuclear sub.
I've been meaning to post about the explosion of the "flying Chernobyl" cruise missile, but I didn't really see conspiracy theories about it unless you count Russian government denials and cover-ups.

 

[Joe_the_Joe]

The first thing that sticks out to me is how there doesn't seem to be any electrical interference.

 

[Agent K]

[Edit] Business Insider presented this as the photo of the missile explosion, but it's probably the arms depot explosion, since the same photographer, Dmitry Dub, is credited with this photo and the photo of the arms depot explosion.

"Russia's military has been rocked by a string of explosions and fires in recent weeks that have left dozens dead or wounded"
https://www.businessinsider.in/russ...zens-dead-or-wounded/articleshow/70592872.cms

 

[Hevach]

A mushroom cloud is caused by any large incendiary event, the minimum size for one is in the Hollywood practical effects range, not the nuclear range.

There are at least two paintings of the 1779 Siege of Gibraltar which shows one when the floating batteries exploded, and there's a good chance that was the largest man-made explosion ever up to that point.

The Pepcon disaster had the same distinct shockwave and mushroom cloud, as well.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPVpzjxRjPk

Chemical plant, EOD, and weapon depot explosions are in the low nuclear range of firepower, so they have most of the physical characteristics of a nuclear explosion, including the shockwave, fireball, mushroom cloud, and Wilson clouds (spherical or ring shaped condensation clouds that form behind the shock front).


What actually sets a nuclear weapon apart isn't the shape or power of the explosion. Even very small nukes have a vaguely unreal look - the flash of light seems to last impossibly long, in the first few seconds there is a fluorescent glow of ionized air around it, and the electrical interference means that if the image was taken digitally, you can probably count out nuclear weapons because EMP hardening isn't really a big thing in consumer or professional level electronics.



The missile test explosion was also not nuclear - the rocket is effectively a Russian version of the US Project Pluto, a jet engine where a nuclear reactor heats the air rather than burning fuel. The nuclear portion itself isn't large enough to explode. However, any failure, even a non-explosive crash (or even successful armed test!) is going to be a radiological disaster, which is why every other country that experimented with nuclear engines like this noped out of it decades ago. A test program is going to have failures, and there are some kinds of failures that simply aren't acceptable risk.

 

[Trailblazer]

Business Insider presented this as the photo of the missile explosion, but it's probably the arms depot explosion, since the same photographer, Dmitry Dub, is credited with this photo and the photo of the arms depot explosion.

I'm confused: this picture seems to be taken at night (not just an exposure issue: there are clearly lights from buildings in the foreground) whereas the arms depot explosion happened during the daytime. Or was there more than one explosion?

 

[Mick West]

I'm confused: this picture seems to be taken at night (not just an exposure issue: there are clearly lights from buildings in the foreground) whereas the arms depot explosion happened during the daytime. Or was there more than one explosion?

It's the same place, presumably arms depot at Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, but seemingly a different explosion.

These two photos were taken from similar position, not the same, but close enough, I think, that it shows the explosions were different.
[compare]

[/compare]

 

[Agent K]

I'm confused: this picture seems to be taken at night (not just an exposure issue: there are clearly lights from buildings in the foreground) whereas the arms depot explosion happened during the daytime. Or was there more than one explosion?

The above BBC article about the arms depot explosion shows this same photo with the caption, "Explosions were continuing after dark."

 

[Mick West]

Similar:
[compare]

[compare][/compare][/compare]

 

[Trailblazer]

Geolocating the footage using the prominent buildings and main road:

The highlighted street is Ulitsa Kravchenko.

Building 2, and the long low blocks near it, are here:

So the photo with the family looking on was taken from somewhere in the blue circle on the hill:

(The building labelled 1 is just off to the right of the frame here)

The red circle is the location of the Kamenka ammo dump:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/K...10ab18286c92318!8m2!3d56.1675578!4d90.4263743



The other video was taken from a little way to the photographer's right, on the other side of the axis of Kravchenko street, but I haven't worked out exactly where. Maybe one of the new-looking houses on top of the hill here.

 

[Trailblazer]

Very similar angle to the other video on Yandex maps, close to the location I suggested above (Zagorodnaya Ulitsa)

 

[Trailblazer]

The video was taken from around 4 km away, so if it was a nuke, it was a really small one (perhaps a fizzle?).

The videos from Achinsk were more like 13km (8 miles) away, possibly 15km if I am correct on the location of the second video.

This is backed up by the time it takes for the sound of the explosion to reach the camera, as one comment on YouTube points out:

 

[Alexandria Nick]

That second video has a lot in common with solid fuel rocket explosions. All those scattered glowy bits look like shattered fuel burning.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

A mushroom cloud is caused by any large incendiary event, the minimum size for one is in the Hollywood practical effects range, not the nuclear range.

There are at least two paintings of the 1779 Siege of Gibraltar which shows one when the floating batteries exploded, and there's a good chance that was the largest man-made explosion ever up to that point.

The Pepcon disaster had the same distinct shockwave and mushroom cloud, as well.

I once saw a mushroom shaped cloud form over a small firecracker.

 

[Agent K]

"Russia says no danger after blast in smallpox lab"
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-says-no-danger-after-blast-in-smallpox-lab/a-50464719

A gas cylinder exploded and prompted a fire in a Siberian research facility which houses samples of smallpox, SARS, Ebola and other potentially deadly viruses. Russian officials said there was no threat of contamination.
A fire in Russia's state-run research lab "Vektor" left one person with burns and caused minor damage in the Siberian facility which houses many dangerous viruses. However, no hazardous materials were released in the Monday blaze, Russian officials said.