Suspected leak at Russia nuke plant

Russia has denied responsibility for a radiation leak detected in Northern Europe that Dutch officials say may “indicate damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant”


Jun 22-23: Nuclear watchdogs in Finland, Norway and Sweden detect higher-than-usual amounts of three radioactive isotopes in atmosphere – not harmful to humans

Possible source region in 72 hours preceding detection

North Sea
DENMARK
NORWAY
NETHERLANDS
SWEDEN
Baltic
FINLAND
Murmansk
Kola NPP
St Petersburg
Leningrad NPP
ESTONIA 
LATVIA 
LITHUANIA
Chernobyl
RUSSIA
Moscow

250km 150 miles


Jun 26: Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment says calculations indicate radionuclides come from direction of western Russia

Jun 28: Rosenergoatom, power-plant subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned nuclear group Rosatom, says its two nuclear power plants in region – Leningrad NPP and Kola NPP – are working normally, with no leaks reported

Leningrad nuclear facility, which features four Soviet-era reactors of same type as Chernobyl, is being upgraded


Picture: RIA Novosti archive, image #305005 / Alexey Danichev / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Sources: CTBTO, AP, BBC, FT
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