MOSCOW: A Russian scientific commission will investigate reports of radioactive pollution almost 1,000 times above normal levels in the southern Urals, state nuclear company Rosatom said on Friday.

The move comes despite Russia’s denial that a nuclear accident had occurred at any of its nuclear facilities.

“Nuclear scientists have created a commission to discover the origin of ruthenium-106,” Rosatom said in a statement, also released by the country’s Nuclear Safety Institute. The commission will include representatives of “Russian and European scientific organisations,” according to the statement.

“Rosatom will offer all necessary assistance to this commission and will inform the public of the results.”

On Monday, Russian meteorologists said a station close to the Mayak nuclear facility in the Chelyabinsk region detected “extremely high pollution” of the ruthenium-106 isotope during tests in late September.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017