Activity has been detected at the underground nuclear testing facility on the island of Novaya Zemlya. The Izvestya newspaper reported on Aug. 16 that there are signs of "new life" at the facility which has been inactive for the past decade.

About 3,000 military personnel live at the site on one of the most remote parts of Russia.

Vladimir Smetanin, chief of administration at Belushya Guba, the capital of Russia's Central Nuclear Test Site, said the test site, once in disrepair from Moscow's ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, is becoming a facility of "federal significance."

The report said the military is being tasked to ensure "nuclear deterrence" and that will mean more money for development of the facility.

"A nuclear weapon is a living organism," said Ivan Kamenskikh, deputy chief of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency, in charge of nuclear weapons.

"The processes occurring within the material it contains require constant monitoring. It is also necessary to monitor the article's other Ñ mechanical and electronic Ñ components."

The facility conducts subcritical nuclear experiments designed to simulate a full yield nuclear blast.

During normal operational conditions, about six subcritical blasts are conducted a year at Novaya Zemlya.

The report said the new nuclear agency, known as Rosatom, is continuing work on "modernizing and improving" the Russian nuclear arsenal.

The report quoted one Russian official as saying that Moscow would resume nuclear tests in the future.

A total of 132 nuclear tests were carried out at Novaya Zemlya since 1955. One was on the surface, three were underwater, 83 were in the atmosphere, three were on the water surface and 42 were underground.

The report said the last nuclear explosion at the facility was in 1990.