Radioactive cloud over the north of Europe

According to a Dutch health agency that has analyzed numerous data, levels of radioactivity in the atmosphere of northern Europe have increased significantly. This may indicate damage to a nuclear power plant in western Russia.

The Russian operator of the Rosenergoatom nuclear power plant has denied any problems at the Kola power plants near Murmansk and Leningrad in St. Petersburg. So where did the recorded contamination come from?

Several Scandinavian regulatory agencies have detected elevated levels of radionuclides (i.e. radioactive isotopes) in the atmosphere. Radionuclides are atoms whose nuclei are unstable – their excess energy is released as a result of radioactive decay. In parts of Finland, southern Scandinavia and the Arctic, the concentration of cesium-134, cesium-137 and ruthenium-103 radionuclides increased. They pose no threat to humans, but since isotopes are byproducts of atomic fission, you need to look at their sources of origin.

“Radionuclides are artificial, which means they were made by man. The composition of radionuclides may indicate damage to fuel elements in a nuclear power plant,” reads a report from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, no specific radiation source could be identified.

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