Norway names cause of increased radiation levels: how Chernobyl is involved

Norway has named the cause of the increased radiation level: how Chernobyl is involved Margarita Voloshina

Norway named the reason increased radiation levels in the country/Collage by Channel 24, illustrative photo

Norway reported increased levels of radioactive cesium (Cs-137) found near the Arctic border with Russia. Now they have named the probable cause of such a change in indicators.

On Wednesday, September 18, they said that the elevated levels of Cs-137 were most likely related to a forest fire near Chernobyl in Ukraine that occurred recently, Reuters reported.

Norway names cause of elevated radiation levels in country

The day before, the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) reported that it had detected “very low” levels of radioactive cesium in Svanhovd and Viksjorfjellet, which are located near the Arctic border with Russia.

The agency then detected elevated levels of radioactive cesium in Svanhovd from September 9 to 16 and in Viksjorfjellet from September 5 to 12. However, according to the information released at the time, these levels did not pose a threat to people or the environment.

The update noted that DSA always finds caesium at all air filter stations in Norway, and this is often due to dust being stirred up from old emissions from the Chernobyl accident.

This time, a forest fire around Chernobyl is most likely to blame, they added.

At the same time, Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Authority also said that slightly higher levels of caesium were found at all eight data collection stations. But they added that the quantities detected were actually negligible.

The highest recorded result was 11 microbecquerels per cubic meter, while normal readings at the stations are less than one microbecquerel per cubic meter, but this is still not enough.

By the way, no other radioactive isotopes were detected during the study of the filters. It is not yet known for sure whether any measurements on the Russian side of the border yielded similar results.