Russia nuke plant suspected of leak

HELSINKI — Nordic authorities say they detected slightly increased levels of radioactivity in northern Europe this month that Dutch officials said may be from western Russia and may “indicate damage to a fuel element in a nuclear power plant.”

But Russian news agency Tass, citing a spokesman with the state nuclear power operator Rosenergoatom, reported that the two nuclear power plants in northwestern Russia haven’t reported any problems.

The Leningrad plant near St. Petersburg and the Kola plant near the northern city of Murmansk “operate normally, with radiation levels being within the norm,” Tass said.

“Both stations are working in normal regime. There have been no complaints about the equipment’s work,” Tass quoted the spokesman as saying. “No incidents related to release of radionuclide outside containment structures have been reported.”

The Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish radiation and nuclear safety watchdogs said last week that they spotted small amounts of radioactive isotopes harmless to humans and the environment in parts of Finland, southern Scandinavia and the Arctic.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said Tuesday that “it is not possible now to confirm what could be the source of the increased levels” of radioactivity, or from where a cloud, or clouds, containing radioactive isotopes that has reportedly been blowing over the skies of northern Europe originated. Its Finnish and Norwegian counterparts also haven’t speculated about a potential source.

But the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands said Friday that it analyzed the Nordic data and “these calculations show that the radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) come from the direction of Western Russia.”