U.S. nuclear experts are skeptical of Moscow's explanation of a fatal accident at a test site

U.S.-based experts are not so sure they believe Moscow's official explanation of the events that led to five deaths in northern Russia this week.

Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom said in a statement Saturday that five of its staff members were killed Thursday in the Arkhangelsk region during the engineering and technical support of isotope power sources on a liquid propulsion system. Three other staff members reportedly suffered injuries.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that no dangerous substances were released following the incident, but a spokeswoman for Severodvinsk, a nearby city, reported a spike in radiation levels on Thursday and Greenpeace cited data from the Emergencies Ministry that reportedly showed radiation levels had risen 20 times above the normal level in Severodvinsk. However, by Friday the city's statement had disappeared from the internet without an explanation.

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U.S.-based nuclear experts have expressed skepticism about the accident and instead suspect the explosion and radiation release resulted from the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile, Reuters reports. "Liquid fuel missile engines exploding do not give off radiation, and we know that the Russians are working on some kind of nuclear propulsion for a cruise missile," Ankit Panda, an adjunct senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists, said.

A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm or deny that the mishap actually involved a nuclear-powered cruise missile, but said that Moscow's assurances that everything is normal "ring hollow to us." Read more at NBC News and Reuters.