Russia is denying any issues at its nuclear power plants after spikes in radiation were registered over some parts of northern Europe.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM, announced on Sunday that it had detected low levels of man-made radiation over the skies of Norway, Sweden, and Finland during the first half of June.
“The combination of radionuclides may be explained by an anomaly in the fuel elements of a nuclear power plant,” RIVM said, according to CNN.
“The calculations indicate that the nuclides come from the direction of western Russia. Determining a more specific source location is not possible with the limited data available,” although it highlighted that “no specific country of origin can be pointed out at this moment.”
22 /23 June 2020, RN #IMS station SEP63 #Sweden?? detected 3isotopes; Cs-134, Cs-137 & Ru-103 associated w/Nuclear fission @ higher[ ] than usual levels (but not harmful for human health). The possible source region in the 72h preceding detection is shown in orange on the map. pic.twitter.com/ZeGsJa21TN
— Lassina Zerbo (@SinaZerbo) June 26, 2020
Russia immediately denied that any leaks occurred at its nuclear reactors. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Monday that his country was not sure where the radiation that RIVM detected originated from.
“We have an exceptional and modern system of monitoring nuclear safety, and as you’ve seen, there were no alarms related to any threatening or emergency situations,” he said. “We don’t know what the source is for these reports of specialists in the Netherlands.”
RIA Novosti, a Russian state-run media outlet, also reported a statement from state-owned power plant operator Rosenergoatom that denied problems at the two plants closest to the Nordic region.
“No incidents were recorded at the Leningrad nuclear power plant and the Kola nuclear power plant, both stations operate normally, there have been no complaints about the equipment’s functionality,” Rosenergoatom said.
