A state of emergency has been declared in a Russian city due to nuclear contamination.
The Russian authorities have not explained what is causing the alarming radiation in the Khabarovsk specialised plant 'Radon', southeast Russia.
A mystery radiation source was today 'removed and placed in a protective container' and 'transported to a radioactive waste storage facility'
Yet a state of emergency is to remain for at least three more days in the Industrialny district of the city, as law enforcement agencies examine the origin of the leak.
It appears to have taken a week for the authorities to act.
Access to the area in question has been restricted as specialists are working to locate the source of the radiation.
A man wearing a nuclear protective mask is seen in darkness with a radiation reader that quickly rises as he walks over a 'waste dump'.
His reader sounded an alarm at 0.45 microsieverts and the highest reading visible on screen is 5.99.
Yet on the video the man says there was a reading of 20, enough potentially to increase cancer risk, damage DNA, cause foetal damage, and threaten the health of children.
Astonishingly, the potentially lethal radiation leak in Khabarovsk was known for around one week before action was taken on it, or the public alerted, say reports.
A 'boy' who made an initial reading on 28 March had reported it to the Russian special services, yet it was only today that a state of emergency was called.
Andrey Kolchin, head civil defence in the city, said: 'A source of increased radiation levels was discovered….the area was cordoned.
'It was decided to introduce a state of emergency in Khabarovsk to carry out work faster.'
The authorities insisted there was no threat to life.
'The radiation source was removed and placed in a protective container, transported to a radioactive waste storage facility,' said a source at Radon nuclear agency.
'There is no environmental pollution and no threat to society.'
Khabarovsk - close to the border with China - has a population of 630,000.
The incident is reminiscent of the infamous Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986.
On the fateful night, the Number Four RBMK reactor at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Ukraine, lost control during a test at low-power.
This led to a massive explosion and fire that destroyed the reactor building and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.
The initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers.
Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from Acute Radiation Sickness and one of cardiac arrest.
The entire town of Pripyat, which had a population of around 49,360 and was located only three kilometres from the plant, was completely evacuated 36 hours after the accident.
During the following weeks and months an additional 67,000 people were evacuated from their homes in contaminated areas and relocated on government order.
In total some 200,0000 people are believed to have been relocated as a result of the accident.
ARS, known commonly as radiation sickness, is an illness that can happen when a person is exposed to high levels of radiation, typically over a short time period.
The initial symptoms of ARS include nausea, vomiting, headache, and diarrhea.
But the way in which radiation affects our bodies is not fully understood.
Symptoms can start within minutes to days after the exposure, can last for minutes up to several days, and may come and go.
After the initial symptoms, a person usually looks and feels healthy for a period of time, but will likely suffer further symptoms at varying degrees of severity, depending on the dose.
These symptoms include loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and possibly even seizures and coma.
This seriously ill stage may last from a few hours up to several months.
Absorbing high doses of radiation can also dramatically increase the likelihood of developing cancers and other chronic illnesses years down the line.
Besides the two workers who were killed instantly in the initial explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, a total of 134 plant staff and emergency workers experienced ARS in the days following the accident, of which 28 died.
Source: CDC
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13275551/State-emergency-nuclear-contamination-Russian.html
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