The Moscow Times said around 60 medics from a hospital near the blast site were undergoing emergency examinations. It said some of the blast victims arrived at Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital naked and wrapped in translucent plastic bags on the day of the explosion but doctors were simply told the men had been hurt in an explosion.
It has now emerged one of the doctors was later found to have Caesium-137, the radioactive isotope created by the nuclear fission of uranium-235, in his muscle tissue.
The Moscow Times claimed the doctor had not been told about the amount or concentration of the isotope found in his system.
Critics of Vladimir Putin’s regime have compared the incident to scenes from the hit mini-series Chernobyl where doctors treated victims without protective gear.
One Arkhangelsk medic said: “Thirty-three years later and our government hasn’t learned a thing.
“They keep trying to hide the truth.”
The August 8 incident is now known to have killed at least five Russian weapons researchers.
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Officials offered no further details about the advisory for the village of Nyonoksa.
Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, has said the engineers were killed on Thursday August 8 while they were testing a “nuclear isotope power source” for a rocket engine.
Local authorities in Severodvinsk, a city of 183,000, reported a brief spike in radiation levels after the explosion, sparking panic amongst residents.
Officials insist it did not pose any health hazards.