31 years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine the disaster still makes itself felt. France reported the detection of a batch of mushrooms from Belarus contaminated by radioactive element cesium-137.
Earlier this week, 3.5 tonnes of mushrooms were in the country from the port in Frankfurt. According to ABC News, at first the experts from the Institute of nuclear safety in France mistakenly assumed that the goods were imported from Russia, linking this with the recent leak of ruthenium, which came from the territory of the Russian Federation.
Not finding traces of ruthenium in the mushrooms, the authorities said that the product has a Belarusian origin. This indicated the presence of cesium-137 that is present in their composition.
According to the representative of the French Agency for the protection of consumers, the radionuclide is still often detected in the region affected by the Chernobyl accident, including on the territory of Belarus, the border of which is located 50 km from the crash site. The half-life of the element is 30 years.
