'Catastrophic radioactivity' found in Russian factory

The top prosecutor in the Russian republic of Chechnya said today that a criminal investigation has been opened into the improper storage of radioactive materials by a state-owned company in the capital, Grozny.

The investigation was prompted by tests that found radiation levels at the Grozny Chemical Factory had exceeded normal levels by tens of thousands of times, the prosecutor said, calling it a “catastrophic radioactivity situation”.

The prosecutor said between 27 and 29 uncontrolled radioactive elements are emitting radiation at the plant, which is located in Grozny’s south-western outskirts not far from some residential buildings and a bus station.

Radiation levels at one storage centre at the plant, which is owned by the Chechen Oil and Chemical Industry complex, exceed norms by 58,000 times, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.

Rossiya state television reported, without citing any source, that that is about half the level at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 explosion.

The presence of the cobalt-60 isotope poses particular danger, the prosecutor’s statement said.

“It’s a threat to the population because the leadership of the plant is taking no steps whatsoever to remove the radioactive material or isolate access to the plant,” Chechen Prosecutor Valery Kuznetsov said.

Vladimir Slivyak, of the Ecodefense environmental group in Moscow, said radioactive materials are often used in Russian industries, for instance in technical devices for large-scale measurements.

If the radioactive elements within the devices are unsealed, that could lead to radiation leaks.

Slivyak said the negligence posed a serious threat to local residents, because being in the vicinity of such high radiation for more than a few minutes could fatally harm a person.

He said another serious danger was the risk that terrorists could seize the improperly stored materials and turn them into a dirty bomb – an explosive device that spreads radioactive materials over wide area.

Chechnya has seen two separatist wars in the past decade and has been plagued by terrorist attacks, including numerous bombings, raising the risk of terrorists’ attempting to seize radioactive materials.

NTV television reported that many of the plant’s premises were badly damaged in 1999 when federal forces bombed Grozny and the plant remains largely unguarded.

“The fact that we haven’t yet heard of terrorists making a dirty bomb means that either we soon will or that radioactive elements have already been sold abroad on the black market,” Slivyak said.

Slivyak called on Russian authorities urgently to remove the radioactive elements and store them in well-guarded radioactive waste facilities.

Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre said the incident smacked of “the usual disorder and negligence” by officials when dealing with potentially harmful materials.