Hungary may be a source of radioactive emissions in Europe

Air iodine-131 radioisotopes in many European countries may have spread from a research institute in Hungary.

The scene of a laboratory inside the Institute
Isotope study in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo: kfki.hu)

Hungarian officials informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that they suspected the radioactive iodine-131 was released from the Isotope Research Institute in Budapest, AP reported.

The Isotopic Research Institute acknowledges that the amount of iodine-131 is greater than the normal level escaping from the institute's campus, but claims that it is not a source of radiation spread to other countries.

'The concentration of radiation in Budapest is only slightly higher than in other places in Hungary. If iodine-131 leaks from Budapest, the radiation levels here must be much greater , ' said Mihaly Lakatos, director of the Isotope Research Institute.

On November 11, governments of some European countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Czech discovered soaring levels of iodine-131 in the air. Four days later, the French authorities also confirmed that they found iodine-131 in the air with low concentrations.

IAEA confirmed that the concentration of iodine-131 in the air in European countries is very low (0.01 microsievert). Meanwhile, an average person exposes an average of 2,400 microsievert per year. So radioactive levels in European countries are not harmful to human health.