(ORDO NEWS) — This month, several countries discovered a mysterious increase in radiation levels over northern Europe, although not a single country claimed responsibility for the anomaly.
A faint surge in radiation – at levels that are considered harmless to humans but significant enough to be seen at radiation monitoring stations – began to appear last week when European authorities announced new readings of radionuclide particles in the atmosphere.
“Very low levels of cesium-134, cesium-137, cobalt-60 and ruthenium-103 radioactive substances were detected,” the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said on Tuesday.
“The measured levels are so low that they are not harmful to people or the environment.”
Similar observations were also made by radiation protection authorities in Norway and Finland.
22 /23 June 2020, RN #IMS station SEP63 #Sweden🇸🇪 detected 3isotopes; Cs-134, Cs-137 & Ru-103 associated w/Nuclear fission @ higher[ ] than usual levels (but not harmful for human health). The possible source region in the 72h preceding detection is shown in orange on the map. pic.twitter.com/ZeGsJa21TN
— Lassina Zerbo (@SinaZerbo) June 26, 2020
“These isotopes are most likely derived from a civilian source,” Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, tweeted on Twitter, suggesting a source related to nuclear energy production rather than nuclear weapons.
“We can indicate the likely region of the source, but it is not part of the mandate of the CSTO [Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization], so it is impossible to establish the exact origin.”
On Friday, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) announced that, based on an analysis of the available data, “the combination of radionuclides can be explained by an anomaly in the fuel cells of a nuclear power plant.”
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