The possibility was, however, rejected by a spokesman for Russian nuclear energy operator Rosenergoatom, who assured, in statements to the Tass news agency, that no problems were reported.
The Leningrad plant, near St. Petersburg, and Kola, near the northern city of Murmansk, “are operating normally, with radiation levels within the norms,” he added.
Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish nuclear security watchers said this week they had detected small amounts of radioactive isotopes harmless to humans and the environment in parts of Finland, southern Scandinavia and the Arctic.
The Swedish Radiological Safety Authority said on Tuesday that it was not possible for now to “confirm the source of the increased levels” or the origin of a cloud containing radioactive isotopes that would be over the skies in northern Europe.
The Finnish and Norwegian authorities have also not speculated about the possible source of the altered levels of radioactivity, but the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment said on Friday that the data show that “radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) come from towards the west of Russia ”.
“Radionuclides are artificial, that is, they were created by humans. The composition of the nuclides may indicate damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant “, said the Dutch organism, adding that” the specific origin cannot be identified due to the limited number of measurements “.
The executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, Lassina Zerbo, said in a message posted on Friday through Twitter that the organization’s radiation monitoring sensors in Sweden detected a slight increase in various harmless isotopes in the northwest European airspace.
A spokesman for Russian operator Rosenergoatom, who was not identified in the news released today by Tass, said the radiation levels at the Leningrad and Kola power stations and surrounding areas “remained unchanged in June” and that “no changes have been seen so far. ”.
“The two centers are working in a normal regime. There were no complaints about the performance of the equipment, “said the same source, adding that” no incidents of radionuclide release outside the containment structures have been reported “.
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