Moreover, no information was given to the environmentalists about the incident. Enterprise representatives cited the fact that Slivyak did not have a copy of Ecodefense!'s charter with him, and that Alimov's journalistic credentials were not valid on the territory of the closed city, as he is not registered there.

“We were refused information. This is open information and is of importance to society,” Alimov said.

“Despite Rosatom's invitation, we weren't even allowed to look at the enterprise from a distance,” Slivyak said. “This could have been an attempt to hide the real state of affairs. We reserve the right to conduct independent investigation of the region of possible pollution around Lesnoy.”

The co-chairman of Ecodefense! group Vladimir Slivyak is interviewed by the TV of Lesnoy closed town

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

The environmentalists also did not get an answer to the question of then the authorities and the local population were informed of the incident, whether metering had been undertaken not of the gamma background but of alpha radiation, or whether factory workers had established if uranium had leaked into the environment. According to the environmentalists, radiation could not have failed to escape outside the confines of the enterprise.

The fire of July 3

On July 3 at 12.57, briquettes made of compressed uranium shavings caught fire at one of EKP's warehouses. Information about the incident only got out of the closed town a week later. Environmentalists received the first information from a resident of a village outside Lesnoy.

Official sources say 13 uranium briquettes measuring 30x10x10 cm each burned. Environmentalists have calculated that the briquettes weighed 200-400 kg.

Tatyana Korenyak, head of Electrokhimpribor's information centre

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

During the meeting, EKP representatives consistently denied that a fire had taken place on July 3. According to Tatyana Korenyak, head of EKP's information centre, the uranium heated up spontaneously, although earlier the factory administration had spoken of combustion.

The environmentalists were shown two local newspapers that repeated official information – Vestnik and Vremya. The first of the two carried an article by the EKP chief engineer, who wrote that at 12.57 on July 3, worker S. Ovchinnikov “having noticed that the material had heated up by itself ... left the premises and called the fire service.”

In the foreground: Ivan Baranov, head of the Rosatom radiation safety department. Next to him: Eugeny Miroshkin, chief state health inspector of Lesnoy

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

EKP representatives said that nothing had burned. Korenyak said that uranium is a heavy element and that “no particle pollutants could form in principle.”

Later, Ivan Baranov, head of the Rosatom radiation safety department, said that the ventilation had been closed when the “heating up” was noticed.

“This obviously does not match up. If the uranium did not burn, and there were no particle pollutants released, then why was the ventilation closed?” asked Slivyak.

The environmentalists asked to see the results of metering done in the premises where the “heating up” took place, as well as the results of soil samples taken with account of wind direction. However, the request was denied “without an official inquiry”.

One of Lesnoy's streets

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

Asked by a Bellona Web correspondent what he could remember about the incident unofficially, Rosatom's Baranov said: “I was at Rosatom at the time. At Rosatom we were nervous.”

The environmentalists were also denied an opportunity to speak with EKP employee Sergei Ovchinnikov, who noticed the uranium heating up and informed management. Media reports later said Ovchinnikov had been hospitalised.

“They showed him on television – he's alive,” said a line manager.

Total secrecy

The paper given to ecologists at the checkpoint after their computers were seized

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

“Our passports were checked and notebook computers seized on the basis that Dell computers are not certified in the closed town of Lesnoy,” said Bellona's Alimov. “We were given papers with the signature of major Dmitry Karev to the effect that they had been taken into storage. We can only guess what they did with our computers while we were talking with EKP representatives.”

At the very start of the visit, the head of EKP's legal department, Viktor Korenev, told Slivyak, “To give you information, I would like to clarify which organisation you represent, and which legal acts you are guided by.”

In the foreground: Viktor Korenev, head of EKP's legal department

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

Korenev demanded that Slivyak prove that he really works for Ecodefense!, as well as a copy of the organisation's charter.

“We can give you the information we think necessary. You have not proved your status or that you are Vladimir Vladimirovich Slivyak,” Karev said.

Later, EKP representatives said that any information, including monitoring, would be given only following an official request. Korenev said he did not consider the invitation from Rosatom to be a basis for presenting any information.

In the closed town of Lesnoy

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

“The invitation from Rosatom's press service does not mean anything. They cannot invite you here,” Korenev said.

Nuclear establishment figures also attempted to prevent the Bellona correspondent from taking their photographs, and also insisted that the text of the article on the meeting be approved by them.

“I had to tell them that this was a breach of our editorial policy,” Alimov said.

Rosatom's press release

Shortly after the incident, Rosatom's press service put out a press release that drew stinging criticism from environmentalists, leading to the invitation to visit Lesnoy.

The press release said “background radiation in Lesnoy was within natural limits, and rose insignificantly during the actual workshop only during the time the uranium heated up, to a level found during passenger aeroplane cabins during flight.”

“I have never seen a more ignorant attempt to calm people down from the Rosatom or Minatom press service in my many years of experience,” Sergei Pashchenko of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences told Bellona Web. “To a specialist this phrase sounds the complete reverse – like a signal of large radiation danger in and around the workshop,”

Cosmic radiation at 8-11 km – the height at which jetliners fly – is significantly higher than background radiation on the Earth's surface, protected by the atmosphere. At this height radiation reaches 200-400 microrontgens per hour (μR/h) – 20-40 times higher normal background radiation on the surface – and despite the relative short exposure time of passengers on board airliners, the health of pilots, cabin crew, and frequent fliers can be put at risk. This is even more the case when solar flares can increase the radiation dose hundreds of times over for a period of a few hours. Increased cancer rates among pilots and cabin crews have been demonstrated by British and Danish researchers. Background rates of 200-400 μR/h are found in significant parts of the closed Chernobyl Oblast.

“Measurements in the workshop during the confusion of a fire could be taken – and likely were taken – only of gamma radiation,” Pashchenko said. “Other forms of radiation alpha and beta do not give operationally reliable data without building up a signal on the filters.”

The Rosatom press release also said that “a heating up of filaments of a non-radioactive isotope of uranium took place”.

“Science does not know any non-radioactive isotopes of uranium among all the isotopes from U-225 to U-240,” Pashchenko said. “If the Rosatom press service has actually discovered a non-radioactive isotope, they could be looking at a Nobel Prize.”

Independent expert assessment

Pashchenko's preliminary assessment put the atmospheric concentration of uranium-238 immediately after the accident as high as 790 times the maximum allowable limit or even higher.

“Uranium, even burning under sand, will release particle pollutants,” he said. “The dangerous role of additional carbonic particle pollutants is that new composite particles unknown to science can form out of the mixture of uranium and hydrocarbons.”

Pashchenko said that the significant isotopes in this case were primarily dangerous as sources of alpha radiation. Uranium fires always create danger to the lungs of people in the affected zone. But even if they settle on plants or parts of the building, the particles ore not rendered harmless, as the slightest wind can carry them up into the air again and again. Dangerous particles may enter the human organism through the food chain many years after being emitted.

Out of the closed town

The checkpoint of the closed town Lesnoy

Rashid Alimov/Bellona

On the way out of Lesnoy, the EKP Toyota, driving at breakneck speed, was stopped by the police, and the men accompanying the environmentalists pulled out their IDs - “We're factory guards, armed. We're in a hurry, we've got to get a move on.”

“Well, you've got to do what you've got to do,” the traffic police officer said, and waved the car on without a fine.