An exercise involving 2000 people, 140 vehicles, robots and drones started in the closed military town of Olenegorsk-2 it the central parts of the Kola Peninsula today. The drills, called “Avariya-2013”, are being supervised by Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Alexander Postnikov.
This is the largest exercise of this kind held in Russia since 2004.
The scenarios for the two days-long exercise include a train wagon carrying nuclear material derailing and tipping over, accidents during car transport of nuclear materials and accidents during loading and unloading of nuclear submarines, Postnikov said in a live transmission from Olenegorsk-2 to Moscow.
The exercise was discussed at a meeting in the Ministry of Defence in Moscow on Monday. “To have nuclear weapons imposes a great responsibility on us when it comes to safety”, said Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu. “This again requires coordinated efforts of the Ministry of Defence, Rosatom, Russian Rail Roads and other departments. We have to be prepared to react on any emergency situations created by nuclear weapons”, he stated, according to TV Zvezda.
Olenegorsk-2 is a central base for storage of nuclear munitions for air and naval forces in North-West Russia. During Soviet times it was a completely closed and secret military town. The town is still closed for outsiders and is very seldom mentioned in media, but through social media it is possible to get a glimpse of the life there.
