EMERGENCY AT LENINGRAD NUCLEAR POWER PLANT: RADIATION LEAKING INTO ATMOSPHERE
A steam pipe has cracked at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant in Russia and is venting radioactive steam into the atmosphere. The radiation is blowing toward southeast Finland.
„The accident occurred at the second power unit when a pipe with steam cracked in turbine hall yesterday. The steam filled the room, and leaked beyond the power plant. The employees of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant (LNPP) had to go home. The second unit was stopped manually, Ekho Moskvy reports.
According to specialists, the release was radioactive, because the waste steam entered the so-called loop reactor coolant.
East wind is carrying a radiation cloud west, in the direction of Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland as shown on the map below:
The LNPP is located 80 kilometers from St. Petersburg, on the Gulf of Finland. It is considered one of the largest producers of electricity in the north-west Russia.
UPDATE Dec. 20, 2015 at 10:00 AM Eastern US Time:
Radioactive steam is still being released from the incident. Local residents have begun taking photos of the steam cloud coming directly out of the reactor building, as shown below.
