working closely to assess the damage. it was tweeted overnight we have seen no over limit radiation limits near the facility. is that still the case in. yes that, is still the case. the monitors are reporting background levels and we don t see any evidence of any dalk that would create a radiological or nuclear incident at this plant. undersecretary hruby, we know that the nuclear site and works are there are still operating at gunpoint under russian forces. how concerned are you and how concerned is the administration this is still a very unstable situation given that? we have conflicting reports
and what they do is they say the santa susana field laboratory has to be cleaned up to background levels. and essentially, what that means is if there is contamination on-site, it gets cleaned up. from your vantage point, what is the status of nasa s actions with respect to the cleanup? congresswoman, all that information you just related is my understanding as well as where we are. and nasa is committed to fulfilling our obligations under the afc. i m tired of fighting. let s clean up the background. let s get this site closed. yes, things happen. yes, they are unfortunate. and we ve made a commitment to clean it up. that cleanup was supposed to have already been concluded by 2017. and boeing and the federal agencies have ensured it hasn t even started. and i m certain that these federal agencies do not want to set a precedent in terms of really cleaning up to a proper standard. and what happens when you cut your corners on safety is you kill people.
radiation levels. yet a few days later, russia s own agency said background levels spiked between 4 and 16 times above normal levels. and that s created a lot of concern about what exactly was being tested at this range. the u.s. believes it was a nuclear-powered cruise missile called the skyfall. that s created a lot of concerns there may, in fact, be some sort of risk after the reports the russians had planned to evacuate a village nearby the test raung. so lots of questions here, but not a lot of transparency from the russian side. certainly, there s a lot more concern after the four stations went offline. they are part of a network that internationally measures for nuclear weapons testing violations. and when they went offline, that raised further questions about how forthcoming the russians were being. strange mystery.
about 2500 miles away, off the coast of the white sea, there was another mysterious explosion that occurred on thursday. we don t have visuals of that new york times says it may be, quote, one of the worst nuclear accidents in the region since chernobyl. at least seven people were killed, and russian news media, quote, radiation briefly rose to 200 times normal background levels. u.s. officials suspect it was a prototype of a nuclear cruise missiles. you can see it in this video played by russian president vladimir putin at his state of the union last year. i m joined business an expert. jeffrey lewis is the director of the east asia nonproliferation
200 times normal background levels. u.s. officials suspect it was a prototype of a nuclear cruise missiles. you can see it in this video played by russian president vladimir putin at his state of the union last year. i m joined business an expert. jeffrey lewis is the director of the east asia nonproliferation project good to see you, what do you make of this the second explosion and the idea that radiation levels were elevated in russia? well, i think the evidence right now is pretty overwhelming that this was something nuclear in character, probably the nuclear-powered cruise missiles that vladimir putin showed off, as you said, during his state of the union address. it s not clear how much radiation was released, but this is a serious accident.