St. Petersburg is mired in nuclear scandals. The public is outraged that the floating nuclear power plant "Akademik Lomonosov", which twice burned recently, is about to load nuclear fuel with weapons-grade uranium-235. However, this scandalous news was eclipsed by another, even more fantastic: it seems that the Radium Institute named after V.G. Khlopin concealed more than five years of radioactive leakage. Near the institute there are two schools, six kindergartens and apartment houses. Apparently, there is finally an answer to the question: why are there so many cancer patients in St. Petersburg?

This almost detective story began to unfold after the Radium Institute posted an order on the site of state purchases for "The dismantling of part of the liquid radioactive waste collection system". The order was valued at 48 million rubles. It happened on July 7th. The documentation on the site notes: according to the information of 2013, the radiation situation on the territory of the site of the Radium Institute named after V.G. Khlopin near the well with a container for storing liquid radioactive waste is unsatisfactory. The cause is also called: radioactive contamination of the soil.

- The attitude of officials to radiation safety issues does not cease to surprise, - the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg is indignant. "Not only that, despite protests, the authorities are not going to refuse to launch the nuclear reactors of the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov at the Baltic plant. Now it became clear that the canned tank with radioactive waste of special canalization of the Radium Institute gave a leak? I already sent the appeal to Rostekhnadzor.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the environmental group "Ecodefense", too, can not hide his indignation:

- Radioactive leakage at the Radium Institute can pose a great danger. And if radioactive waste has penetrated into the groundwater, they are naturally polluted. It is necessary to look, did not take out these wastes in the direction of water intake.

Deputy Nadezhda Tikhonova, chairman of the commission of the Legislative Assembly for the Environmental Protection of Population, has already appealed to the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg with a request to check information on the leakage at the Radium Institute. "The situation is outrageous and raises a lot of questions," Tikhonova said. - How was it possible to admit that five years in a row the underground disposal facility for radioactive waste in the city has not been liquidated and still continues to poison the soil and, possibly, water in St. Petersburg?

In Smolny all is quiet

However, the deputy head of the Committee for Environmental Management, Environmental Protection and Ensuring Environmental Security of St. Petersburg, Ivan Serebritsky, said: Radiation indices in the territory of the Radium Institute are within the norm.

- The city authorities conducted radiation measurements in the vicinity of the Radium Institute, which showed no leakage. Samples were taken from both the soil and water, "Ivan Serebritsky assured the journalists.

That is, everything is good, there is nothing to worry about? We have to object to Mr. Serebritsky.

The leakage of radioactive waste has already occurred. And, apparently, continues to happen. What is the evidence of several experts. But no one was coming down to the ground with Geiger counters. And why did you suddenly need to dismantle a network of underground pipelines for chemicals from laboratories? The documentation prepared by the joint-stock company RAOPROEKT contains all the previously classified information: there was a leak in the system. That is, the soil is infected. And now it is not clear where exactly this whole infection settles. So, in order to establish the true extent of the state of emergency, it is necessary to disassemble all up to one building in the problem area of ​​the institute.

Radium Institute Khlopin in St. Petersburg is located on four sites. Three of them are working with dangerous radioactive materials. Problem area No. 1 is located at: 2nd Murinsky Avenue, house 28. On the territory there are several buildings and there are pipelines of special canalization, over which radioactive substances from the laboratories were merged. The depth of the pipelines is 1.5 meters. The entire system operated from 1966 to 2006. In 2006, the first building stopped working with radioactive materials and stopped the operation of the pipe. But to clean it of radioactive contents, apparently, did not.

Cesium-137, thorium-228

Go ahead. Back in 2012, it was revealed that in the area where the capacity is located there are radioactive soil contamination within a radius of 2-3 meters. And in the capacity itself, which after decommissioning nobody cleaned, a certain jelly-like substance was formed. In the course of observations, it was found that the level of this substance varies in different seasons, which can be said about one thing - the integrity of the walls is broken. In 2013, a comprehensive engineering survey was carried out. This survey confirmed: the radiation situation in the territory with a capacity for liquid wastes is very disturbing. Spectrometric analysis determined that thorium-228, cobalt-60, cesium-137 and cesium-134, europium-154, barium-133, americium-241 create a radioactive atmosphere.

The leader of the anti-nuclear project "Greenpeace Russia" Rashid Alimov has already stated that the Radium Institute, in which the leakage of radioactive waste occurred, does not belong in the city.

"For the irresponsibility of nuclear scientists Petrograders are already paying their health," he says. "That is why we are also against the launch of the nuclear reactors of the floating nuclear power plant" Academician Lomonosov "in the center of St. Petersburg. We demanded from the prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg to provide information about the danger that this leakage is causing for the residents of the city. And we also demand to punish the guilty.

But why in the Radium Institute remembered only five years after these serious radioactive leaks started? What was the reason? Perhaps, it was impossible to hide the state of emergency further? Note that in a special group of risk today are children, especially children under 5 years old, who have not yet formed the immune system. Near the problem area, recall, there are two schools, six kindergartens and a large residential neighborhood.

REFERENCE

Since 1922 the Radium Institute. V.G. Khlopin conducts research on nuclear-physical, radio-chemical and environmental profiles related to nuclear power problems. The main building of the Institute is located on the 2-nd Murinsky Avenue. The first historical building, which houses the Institute's Memorial Museum, Europe's first cyclotron and part of the research laboratories, is located on Roentgen Street.