UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 19, 2017. Rosatom’s Chelyabinsk Region-based enterprise Mayak reports their radioactive and Ruthenium 106 emissions currently stay at under 0.5% of the maximum permissible discharge limits. Radioactive emissions reached less than 3% of the maximum permissible discharge limit throughout the year 2017 altogether, the company press service reports.

‘The radiochemical plant keeps working on the federal nuclear and radiation safety program for 2016-2020 and 2020-2030; this means we have been reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from Leningrad Nuclear Power Station’s RBMK uranium-graphite channel type reactors. This is essential to improving radiation safety in Russia. Mayak is the country’s only enterprise to do these jobs. As for the recent rumors regarding alleged increased Ruthenium 106 emissions, these rumors are not true. Our plant keeps doing the spent fuel reprocessing jobs under normal conditions,’ says Mayak Director-General Mikhail Pokhlebayev.

All radioactive emissions at all of the company’s production departments stay within the maximum permissible discharge limits. There are data from the active environmental monitoring system’s sensors to prove this; the system monitors all the nearby towns and cities and comprises both continuous and intermittent monitoring sensors that gauge the emissions amount, atmospheric contamination levels, and radioactive aerosol fallout.

In addition to the usual monitoring routine, the plant did a number of control tests between September 20 and October 17, 2017 to make sure no harmful emissions (including those of Ruthenium 106) took place. The tests proved all the emission levels stay within their normal average range, as has been the case for many years now.