UpLateAgain • 24 minutes ago

Russians have an overall terrible record when it comes to dealing with fissionable material. The safe locks and redundancies they put into their control systems are frequently not sophisticated, poorly engineered, and often poorly maintained. Their technicians too frequently are nearly uneducated on the systems... just functionaries told to follow procedures without knowing what exactly they are doing. They have lakes where several decommissioned nuclear subs are sitting rotting away because the power plants went bad and they are now too radioactive to even take apart and secure. Nearly half of Russia's 183 decommissioned nuclear submarines have yet to be dismantled or their reactors and on-board fuel rods made safe. When the Soviet Union fell, the new Russian government contracted the US government and some private security firms to provide security on stockpiles of Russian nuclear warheads until they were settled out, because they didn't trust Russians generals wouldn't steal them to sell in international arms trade. So far, nine Russian nuclear subs have sunk or been scuttled at sea because of reactor failures. And the cancer rate among Russian nuclear submarine sailors is something like ten times normal.... and that's for the ones who survived 13 months of conscripted service in the sub fleet and then got out.

Russians just don't do high tech precision well, and you need that with something as dangerous as nuclear assets.