Has the level of radioactivity increased in northern Europe due to the “little flying Chernobyl”?

The Nuclear Safety and Radiation Services of Norway, Finland and Sweden reported last week that they had registered small amounts of radioactive isotopes in Finland, southern Scandinavia and the Arctic.

And although it was soon clarified that the levels of radioactivity were low and did not pose a risk to human health, the Dutch experts reported a few days later that the radioactive isotopes of cesium and ruthenium could have spread from Russia, suspected of damaging the plant. nuclear energy.

Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosenergoatom immediately announced that two of its nuclear power plants in the northwest of the country had not reported any outages.

However, such denials are questionable, firstly because there has been a case in which Russia has taken responsibility in recent years, but it has finally become clear that radiation has spread from this country.

In 2017, Italian scientists were the first to notice a significant increase in radioactive ruthenium in the atmosphere. His colleagues in Paris quickly reported that the outbreak was more likely to occur in Russia, from where the radioactive cloud had passed through Europe.

French scientists have identified Russia’s Ural Mountains as a likely source of contamination. And it is there, in the Chelyabinsk region, where the “Majak” nuclear fuel production complex is located, where there were not one or two accidents in Soviet times.

In 2017, the Russians denied everything and offered a version that the radiation was dissipated by a burned-out satellite battery. But a few months later, after extensive research, scientists at Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany reported that ruthenium began to spread to the environment from the Urals.

Now the situation may be similar. In Saint Petersburg, officers with decontamination equipment recently appeared in the northern suburbs, and military machines also appeared in the Sestroreck district.

And Forbes is now releasing a version that the radiation could have been released into the environment by testing new Russian strategic nuclear weapons, such as the Poseidon nuclear torpedo or the Burevestnik nuclear missile.

It is quite logical that Burevestnik has released the radiation, which is in the air; any incident would mean the release of radioactive isotopes into the environment.

This may have been the case on August 9, 2019, when the Burevestnik rocket, sometimes called the “little flying Chernobyl,” exploded in the Arkhangelsk region. Unconfirmed data killed 7 people and increased radioactivity levels in the region.

Intelligence analysts such as Yevgeny Maksimov have pointed out that the Burevestnik tests have likely been carried out in recent weeks, with a no-fly zone declared over the missile test site from June 22 to 27.

It is true that the missile tests are being carried out south of where the radiation is believed to have reached northern Europe. Therefore, the effect of the Poseidon torpedo is not ruled out: Russian warships are almost always found in northern Europe.

And from June 18 to 23, a special ship “Akademik Aleksandrov” was sailing in the region. He is believed to be generally involved in lifting Poseidon out of the water.