The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety produced this map showing the detection of Ruthenium 106 in France and Europe after an apparent accident at a Russian nuclear facility IRSN/APAfter denying a nuclear leak for several months, Russia admitted yesterday that “extremely high” concentrations of radioactive pollution were detected in the southern Urals in late September. The level of ruthenium-106, a radioactive isotope that does not occur naturally, had reached 986 times the normal level of pollution at a monitoring station about 20 miles from the Mayak nuclear facility, where in 1957 an explosion exposed at least 272,000 people to dangerous levels of radiation. Russian officials had denied any knowledge of an accident in September or October. The state nuclear corporation Rosatom said then that “radiation around all objects of Russian nuclear infrastructure is within the norm and at the level of background radiation”. The French nuclear safety institute the IRSN said this month,…

Source: The Times November 21, 2017 00:45 UTC