Deposits in Ticino greatly reduced 40 years after Chernobyl
Keystone-SDA
The Chernobyl reactor accident on April 26, 1986 affected the cantons of Ticino, St. Gallen and Thurgau via rainfall in Switzerland. In Ticino, highly radioactive caesium contamination has been reduced by more than half since the accident.
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On May 3, 1986, heavy rainfall in Ticino allowed radioactive substances to be deposited, as Cristina Poretti, head of the national organisation for sampling and measurements for the National Emergency Operations Centre of the Federal Office for Civil Protection, explained.
The material came from a radioactive cloud that had spread across Europe after the reactor accident. Where it rained, the particles were deposited on the ground. In Ticino, radioactive deposits were subsequently detected in over 5,000 samples of milk, meat, fruit and fish, as Poretti explained.
Translated from German by AI/jdp
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