China's nuclear safety authority says no abnormalities have been detected in the border province just 20 miles from a Russian city that saw background radiation levels shoot up 1,600-fold last week.
The radiation spike prompted local officials to declare a state of emergency in Khabarovsk, Russia's largest far-eastern city with a population of about 630,000.
Khabarovsk's mayor lifted the state of emergency on Tuesday, and the source of radioactive contamination was transferred to competent authorities, China's consulate in the city announced on WeChat.
The news made waves online, leading some netizens to compare it to the disaster that occurred in 1986 when a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing a massive amount of radioactive material into the environment.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry with a written request for comment.
China's National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) said Wednesday on WeChat that the environmental department in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang had been paying close attention to the situation.
Meanwhile, the Heilongjiang Provincial Atmospheric Radiation Environment Automatic Monitoring Station measured the local gamma radiation and collected aerosol samples 24 hours a day over the past few days.
The monitoring showed radiation to be within normal parameters, and no abnormalities had been detected, the agency said.
According to the Moscow Times, a local resident reported the potentially dangerous situation after noticing elevated radiation levels near a metal depot. Officials then cordoned off an area of about 9,700 square feet.
Russian state news outlet Tass reported that the source of the radiation was a capsule from a flawed detector and that it had been disposed of by a company that handles nuclear waste.
On Tuesday, the disaster relief authorities in Khabarovsk detected radiation levels of between 0.09 and 0.13 microsieverts per hour—within normal parameters, the Chinese consulate cited them as saying.
The microsievert (µSv) is a unit of measurement used to measure the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation in human tissue, or radiation that has enough energy to remove tightly bound electrons from atoms, potentially damaging cells and DNA.
The effects of exposure depend on factors like the type of radiation, the dose received, and the duration of exposure.
The Latvia-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta said volunteers belonging to a radiation control group had detected 800 microsieverts per hour at the peak of radioactivity.
A level of 0.5 microsieverts per hour is considered safe for the general public, meaning the radiation detected was 1,600 times higher.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
