Satellite imagery indicated that Russia had at least begun dismantling the suspected location of the Burevestnik tests – located in the first place by analyzing a video, seen above, of a purported test launch of one of the missiles that the Kremlin released with Putin's speech – in Novaya Zemlya between July and August 2018. A very similar looking facility subsequently appeared in imagery from Nyonoksa.

Whatever the case, the officials from the RFNC-VNIIEF said that preparations had been underway for the test at Nyonoksa, also sometimes written Nenoksa, for around a year. This would line up with observations, including from commercial satellite imagery, that researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California had made in the same timeframe.

This, in principle, would give the weapon virtually unlimited range and a maximum flying time measured in days or weeks. Another possibility might be that it uses a nuclear thermal rocket , which uses a liquid fuel source instead of air, but this would have a more limited flight time compared to an air-breathing design given its use of a more finite fuel source. Reports of "liquid fuel" may also point to a liquid fuel reactor design.

This adds to other existing evidence that suggests a Burevestnik, or at least a test article related to that program, was the source of the accident. This includes the presence of the nuclear fuel carrier ship Serebryanka, which typically carries nuclear fuel rods or similar cargoes, near Nyonoksa at the time of the incident. This ship would be a good choice for transporting Burevestnik and was reportedly among the ships Russia had sent out on a mission in 2018 to recover one or more of the missiles that had crashed in the waters around Novaya Zemlya.

Still, much remains unknown about the test and the actual severity of the accident, which reportedly led to at least a brief spike in radiation and involved a blast powerful enough to register at monitoring sites that exist to watch for signs of nuclear weapon testing . The Russian Ministry of Defense has since claimed that there was no radiation leak and has compelled local authorities to take down online notices about the recorded increased background radiation. So far, there have been no similar reports from other monitoring organizations in the region.

Beyond that, it is unclear how much progress the Burevestnik program may have made toward anything approaching a viable weapon system, if that is even possible. The United States experimented with a similar concept during the Cold War, but abandoned it due to the complexities surrounding developing a reactor small enough to fit in a reasonably sized missile and the dangers inherent to the design. Most problematically, the lightened, miniaturized reactor would have been unshielded, meaning that the weapon's exhaust would have spewed out dangerous amounts of radioactive material the entire way to its target.

"It’s unclear if someone in the Russian defense industrial bureaucracy may have managed to convince a less technically informed leadership that this is a good idea, but the United States tried this, quickly discovered the limitations and risks, and abandoned it with good reason," Ankit Panda, a nuclear expert with the Federation of American Scientists, told The Times. The Kremlin may also have simply initiated the Burevestnik project with the intent of using it, and the possibility of stopping the development, as a bargaining chip in future arms control negotiations with the United States.

Whether or not this accident actually involved Burevestnik, it will certainly open up the Kremlin to increasing criticism over that project, as well as other projects involving nuclear power given the country's already spotty safety record. Russia is also working on a nuclear-powered nuclear-armed torpedo and an ostensibly civilian-focused floating nuclear power plant, both of which have already been controversial developments. The floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov is reportedly on its way right now to the city of Pevek in Russia's Far East.

The Russian government has been providing a small, but a steady trickle of information about this recent accident at Nyonoksa, but the Kremlin has a history of being particularly secretive about any major military mishaps, especially those that could have a radiological component. Russia has been equally reluctant to share information about a fire that occured on the nuclear-power spy submarine Losharik on July 1, 2019. Reports had also emerged later that a sunken Soviet-era nuclear submarine was leaking much more radiation than previously understood, though Russian and Norweigan researchers insisted that the depth of the wreck and its general location mean this presents a more limited risk to surrounding areas.

It may take decades to get a clearer picture of what happened, if that happens at all.

Update: 6:30 PM EST—

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have confirmed that the U.S. Intelligence Community has at least strong suspicions that a Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, or a prototype thereof, was involved in the accident last week. Trump Tweeted about the incident late on Aug. 12, 2019, describing it using the NATO nickname for the weapon, "Skyfall." Previous reports have identified this moniker, but no U.S. or other NATO officials have used it publicly before, suggesting that the social media post followed a formal briefing on the topic.