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Nuclear "Bomb" Discovered in Romanian Capital
Romanian authorities issued an alert Tuesday after the discovery of an obsolete nuclear installation in Bucharest which experts say could prove devastating in case of a fire or earthquake.
The deputy mayor of the Romanian capital's second district, Tudor Dan, said the eight-tonne installation containing radioactive Cobalt-60, could "seriously contaminate Bucharest if it were damaged."
The environment ministry said that the equipment, found in a disused building in the centre of the city, posed no danger to the public as it was hermetically sealed in lead cladding.
This "rules out any danger, even in the case of an earthquake or a fire," a ministry spokesman said.
But experts agreed there is a risk. "The installation does not currently constitute a health risk, but in time is poses an enormous risk," said the laboratory tasked with monitoring radiactivity levels in the city.
The equipment, imported from the then Soviet Union in 1974 by Bucharest's Institute of Physics, was used for chemical research but was disused after five years due to a fault, complicated by a deadly earthquke in March 1977.
The installation is regularly visited by experts from the national nuclear safety commission, the environment ministry said.
According to Dan, dismantling the "nuclear bomb" would cost some 22,000 dollars, which city authorities cannot afford.
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