Ru-106
All Rosatom nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel reprocessing sites are operating safely and normally. There have been no incidents at any of these sites during the period of September-October 2017. Rosatom operates to the highest standards of transparency and in strict compliance with IAEA rules on the reporting of all incidents at nuclear facilities.
Radiation levels at all Rosatom plants are automatically monitored and are fully accessible to the public through the website: www.russianatom.ru
The recent release of Ruthenium 106 that has been detected across Europe did not come from a Rosatom facility.
Ruthenium 106 (Ru-106), does not occur naturally and the normal atmospheric levels are miniscule. This means that even a small amount of it being released will trigger a high percentage increase.
In case of the recently detected emissions recorded by Roshydromet (the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring) in late September/early October, absolute levels of Ru-106 were between 0.001% and 1% of the maximum permitted levels thus such spike in the detected levels of Ru-106 in the atmosphere, created no risk to public health.
Monitoring bodies in several other European countries have recorded similar concentrations of Ru-106 at sites spread over a very wide geographic area with some sites 3000km apart recording similar concentrations to those found in Russia. However, in Romania the Ru-106 levels detected were several times higher than those in the territory of the Russian Federation.
Rosatom has offered its help and expertise to support the IAEA and other regulatory authorities in establishing the source and cause of the release of Ru-106 into the atmosphere.
Additional background:
Ruthenium is an element of the 8th group of the 5th period of the periodic table of chemical elements, its atomic number is 44. In pure form Ruthenium is a silver transition metal a bit like platinum. It was discovered by professor Karl Claus of Kazan State University in 1844. It is named after the Latin name of Rus - Ruthenia.
Ruthenium-106 (Ru-106) can be used in medicine for treating eye cancer, as a reference source in testing radiation control devices, as well as in power generators for satellites. The half-life of ruthenium-106 is about 1 year.
Since the beginning of 2017, the total radioactivity of ruthenium-106 plaques for the treatment of eye tumors, produced by Russian suppliers for medical institutions in the country was less than one hundred millicuries.
The Communications Department of ROSATOM