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        According to analysis by experts, new satellite images indicate that Russia is working to resume test flights of its nuclear-powered cruise missile at a site near the Arctic Circle that had previously been dismantled. Planet Labs captured the pictures which show high levels of activity at a site called Pankovo. This site has been used by Russia to test its Burevestnik nuclear-power cruise missiles in the past according to Michael Dutisman and Jeffrey Lewis who are researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Russia had appeared to halt testing of the missile after 2018 when the site was dismantled but now the analysts say that Russia has restarted work at the site.
    Lewis and Duitsman wrote a new report which noted that their images show that Russia has rebuilt the launch pad at the site. They said, “The activity and new construction are consistent with a resumption of test flights of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile. Large numbers of shipping containers at two support areas can be seen including some at the probable missile checkout building.”
    It is known that at least one test flight of the nuclear powered-cruise missile was conducted at the Pankovo site in 2017. In March of 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a video of a nuclear-powered cruise missile test. Open-source researchers at the Middlebury Institute were able to identify the location of the test by analyzing the video. Two U.S. officials have publicly stated that they were aware that Russia had been working on preparations to test such missiles as part of Russia’s advanced weapons program.
     Earlier this month, Russia announced that it had successfully test-fired a hypersonic cruise missile from a Russian naval ship in the White Sea. Last Tuesday, Russia’s ministry of Defense posted a video of an Oniks cruise missile launch from a Russian military base inside the Arctic Circle. The Russian MoD has not responded to questions about whether they are planning for a new test of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
     Just as the U.S. and Russia are negotiating to extend the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty before it expires in a few months, evidence hassurfaced that Russia may be preparing to resume tests of its nuclear-powered cruise missile.
      Marshall Billingslea is the top U.S. negotiator on the New Start treaty. He suggested last Friday that the negotiations between the U.S. and Russia had reached an impasse. However, on Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced that it is willing to freeze its nuclear arsenal in order to extend New Start if the U.S. does not demand any new requirements. The U.S. State Department says that it welcomes the Russian offer and that the U.S. is “prepared to meet immediately to finalize a verifiable agreement.”
      U.S. President Donald Trump has urged his national security team to obtain a nuclear deal with Russia before the U.S. election in November. Trump had initially wanted to include China in the New Start negotiations, but China has repeatedly rejected taking part in any such negotiations.
      Russia has stated previously that its nuclear-powered cruise missile in not covered by the New Start treaty. If the U.S. and Russia cannot renew the New Start treaty before it expires in a few months, there may be a new nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia.
      Lewis said in an interview, “The arms control framework that secured the post-Cold War has completely disintegrated. If and when the New START treaty expires in a few months, there will be no limits on US and Russian nuclear forces for the first time in fifty years. In its place is a burgeoning arms race as Russia develops one doomsday weapon after another to defeat US missile defenses.” Lewis added that, with respect to the nuclear-powered cruise missile, “The United States and Russia seem to be stumbling into a new arms race. This is one of a number of dangerous and destabilizing weapons right out of science fiction that Russia is developing to defeat US missile defenses”
      Vipin Narang is a nuclear proliferation expert and associate professor at MIT. He says that nuclear-powered cruise missile development is a way that Russia can escape the terms of the New Start treaty. If they are successful, they will have a new nuclear weapon with intercontinental range that can pose a serious challenge to any antimissile system deployed by a targeted nation.
     Narang said in an interview that “A nuclear powered cruise missile gives a low-flying, radar-evading, nuclear-capable missile intergalactic range that can pose a challenge to national missile defenses.” He mentioned that there are indications that Russia is working on another test and that this shows “how much our missile defenses drive their developments and how scared they are of them, not today, but tomorrow.”
      Narang went on to say that the development of a nuclear power cruise missile was very controversial “because it’s crazy to put an unshielded nuclear reactor on a missile to power it.” He also said that the testing such a weapon could lead to catastrophic consequences if anything goes wrong.
     In 2019, Russian state media said that five nuclear agency workers were killed at a military test site in northern Russia. The explosion was detected by seismic monitoring stations and it supposedly occurred during tests of a liquid propulsion system that involved radioactive isotopes. The expected secrecy of the Russian government prevented the release of any details of the accident. Lewis has said that satellite imagery indicated that the event might have been related to the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile.
     There have been reports that Russia has conducted at least four nuclear-power cruise missile tests. The cruise missile is launched into flight by some sort of conventional engine and then the nuclear engine is turned on. Some analysts say that every one of these tests has failed when they tried to turn on the nuclear engine.
     Between 1957 and 1961, the U.S. carried out a well- funded program to develop a nuclear-powered cruise missile. The basic concept was proven to be sound and the five hundred megawatt nuclear engine was successfully test fired in 1961. No actual operational prototype was ever constructed. The U.S. abandoned the project in favor of development of ICBM after 1961.
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