interesting news release

[baker@nucst11.neep.wisc.edu]

 A news release I thought some of you may find interesting,
 
 Mike Baker ... baker@nucst11.neep.wisc.edu
 
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 From: C-reuters@clari.net (Reuters)
 Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 8:00:13 PST
                 
          OSLO, Norway (Reuter) - Norway registered radioactive 
 fallout for a week in January that could stem from a nuclear 
 reactor abroad, an official said Wednesday.  
          Finland, which was one of several countries to be hit by 
 fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in the Soviet 
 Union in 1986, also measured fresh fallout in the same period 
 but said the radioactivity was within normal limits.  
          The Norwegian readings of Iodine and Cesium 137 were made in 
 places as far apart as the Arctic province of Finnmark to the 
 north and the capital of Oslo in the south.  
          ``We have measured nucleids from a reactor between Jan. 8 
 and 15. They are not found in nature,'' Eldri Naadland, a 
 researcher at the State Radiation Protection Agency, told 
 Reuters. ``The wind came from the south and southeast in that 
 week.''  
          The daily Aftenposten said this would indicate the fallout 
 stemmed from Russia or the Baltic states, but noted the Russians 
 had told the Nordic countries there had been no leaks from 
 nuclear power plants.  
          Naadland said the readings were higher than normal but very 
 small and posed no threat to health.  
          In Helsinki, the Finnish Center for Radiation and Nuclear 
 Safety said it detected this kind of fresh fallout on 17 
 occasions last year. Contact with the Russian side is regular.  
          ``These concentrations detected now are very small indeed,'' 
 said Hannelle Aaltonen, director of preparedness at the center.  
          For instance, during Chernobyl the center measured some 
 200-300 million micro-becquerels per cubic meter, but the 
 January measurements were between one and 10, she said.  
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