Radioactive clouds observed over the Baltic Sea – concerned about safety at Russian power plants

“These are four radionuclides that occur during nuclear reactions or nuclear installations,” said Julius Žiliukas, Head of Monitoring at the Center for Radiation Protection.

Radiation recording devices in Lithuania are reported to have detected no change. The Center for Radiological Protection states that the air we breathe in Lithuania was and is clean, there were no increases in radioactive materials. However, more detailed studies will be carried out to determine if there is at least a minimal increase in radioactive material.

Dutch experts take into account the prevailing winds over the past week and have produced a map of the states from which the radioactive cloud originates in northwestern Russia. There are three Russian nuclear power plants in the region. “The suspicion is that this may have happened from western Russia, although Russia reported that everything was in order at its nuclear power facilities and nothing happened,” says Julius Žiliukas, monitoring manager of the Center for Radiation Protection.

Five years ago, it was announced that the Borno Sosnovy power plant had an accident: a split turbine. However, on Monday, the Lithuanian authorities confirmed that the increase in radioactive particles was registered in our country, last Monday the increase in radioactive cesium was recorded in Lazdijai and on Saturday

The peace declared by the Russians is not surprising, the same radioactive materials were released in Europe a couple of years ago by international experts, and then they discovered that the radioactive clouds came from Russia, but the Russians did not admit it.

This time, Lithuania, through diplomatic channels, will try to demand official information from the Russians about what is happening in their power plants. According to the Center for Radiation Protection, radioactive particles from a nuclear power plant can spread even in the event of an accident, but simply during simple, routine work when safety rules are not followed. Precisely due to strict requirements, the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant takes decades.

Former Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas recalls that Russian technologies are also used at the Astrava power station near Vilnius, and many incidents have been announced during the construction of the Astrava. Lithuanian intelligence reports that there was a fire near the Astrava reactor, and even earlier it was announced that the Astrava reactor had fallen from a height of four meters. “It shows that Russia’s nuclear power and nuclear power are not completely safe. Incidents and accidents are a fact and the fact that Astravas, whose first unit can be launched in July, is less than fifty kilometers from Vilnius, it is a real threat, “says former Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas.

Julius Žiliukas, the monitoring manager of the Radiation Protection Center, claims that the security center has no information that anything has changed in Lithuania’s radiation background.

“A few days ago, information was published that a couple of stations showed elevated levels of radionuclides, but we had no official and confirmed information from the administration,” said the specialist.

Another laboratory analyzes samples that are very accurate, so it takes a long time to analyze them. The results of the investigation will show whether Swedish services detected traces in Lithuania.