Kazakh authorities have denied the recent allegations that a nuclear pollution cloud detected in Europe could have resulted from an accident at a nuclear facility in the country.
"A radioactive cloud? We’ve registered nothing like that. We don’t know anything about it. Our monitoring systems have not spotted a nuclear pollution cloud. We’ve had no reports about the issue," Timur Zhantinkin, deputy head of the radioactive monitoring committee at the Kazakhstan Energy Ministry, told Sputnik Kazakhstan.
The emergencies committee has also denied the information.
"We’ve contacted each of our reginal departments and they haven’t confirmed this information," committee spokesperson Ruslan Imankulov said.
Sputnik International has reached out to Rosatom, the regulator of the Russian nuclear sector. The company responded, saying that there is nothing to comment on because "everything has already been said."
Rosatom referred to its earlier statement when the first reports of a nuclear pollution cloud in Europe started to emerge. On October 11, the company denied the claims that the source of the nuclear pollution was likely to be located in the southern Urals, in Russia.
"All energy blocks in every Russian nuclear power plant were working and are currently working under normal conditions and carrying out their scheduled load. No technical problems or safety rules violations have been reported. The radiation environment at all facilities is normal," the statement read.
Earlier in the day, Reuters reported citing the IRSN that a cloud of radioactive pollution over Europe in September and October could have resulted from an accident south of the Ural mountains and between the Urals and the Volga River, which could indicate Russia or Kazakhstan.
The IRSN has also ruled out an accident in a nuclear reactor, suggesting it was likely to be in a nuclear fuel treatment or center for radioactive medicine. Ruthenium-106 particles were detected in several countries in concentrations not harmful to human health and the environment, according to the report. The particles disappeared from France in mid-October.
