"There is no risk" after the explosion that killed five people on August 8 on a missile launch base in the Russian Far North, assured President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
"No increase in radiation level"
During a press conference before his meeting at Fort Brégançon with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Russian president said: "There is no risk and no increase in the level of radiation". "We sent experts on site and they control the situation," he added. "Preventive measures have been taken so that nothing unexpected can happen."
On August 10, the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom reported an explosion that killed five people two days earlier on a missile launch base in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia's Far North.
Immediately after the accident, the Russian Ministry of Defense had excluded radioactive contamination, citing problems that occurred during the testing of a "liquid propellant rocket engine". But the town hall of a town near the base said it had "recorded a brief rise in radioactivity" before withdrawing its publication. The Russian authorities have since acknowledged that the accident was linked to tests of "new weapons".
On 15 August, the Norwegian Nuclear Safety Authority reported that it detected trace amounts of radioactive iodine in the border region with Russia in the days following the explosion. "At present, it is not possible to determine whether the latest detection of iodine (radioactive) is related to the accident in Arkhangelsk," said the Norwegian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority.