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The United Nations agency said it was still unable to determine from which reactor the radioactive material leaked after several northern European countries, including Finland and Sweden, registered slightly elevated levels of radioactive iodine, cesium, cobalt and ruthenium in the air last week.
A Dutch institute hypothesized that the source of the contamination was in western Russia. There has also been speculation that the incident may have been caused by burned wood in Latvia contaminated with radionuclides released during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.
Russian nuclear power company Rosenergoatom claimed that there were no incidents at its two power plants. At the time, a French NGO rejected Latvia’s theory because it was allegedly refuted by a single type of radioactive isotope.
The increase in radioactivity “is likely related to a nuclear reactor currently operating or under maintenance, in which case very small amounts of radioactive [medžiagų] amounts, “said the IAEA report.
The Vienna-based organization said more than 40 countries, including Russia, did not report anomalies in their territories.
“The IAEA has rejected the presumption that this spread is related to the management of inappropriate radioactive sources,” the agency noted.
“It is also unlikely to be related to a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, a spent fuel pool, or the use of radiation in industry or medicine,” the report said.
The agency added that data provided by its members showed that the observed concentrations of radionuclides “were very low and did not pose any risk to human health and the environment.”
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