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(Yonhap) |
South Korea has yet to find any traces of radioactive materials from North Korea's latest nuclear test, a nuclear safety commission here said Thursday, confirming the country remains safe from nuclear fallout.
"The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission has not found any traces of radionuclides, such as xenon, in its tests of soil, water and air samples following North Korea's fifth nuclear test," the commission said in a released statement.
The commission has been testing samples every 12 hours since Monday, two days after the communist North said it successfully conducted its latest nuclear detonation test.
The tests are partly aimed at independently confirming whether the North has in fact conducted another nuclear test.
"The commission believes its failure to detect xenon and other radionuclides so far is because there exist only minuscule amounts of such elements or due to air currents blowing such elements away from the country," it said.
The commission added South Korea's background radiation currently remains at the usual level of 50-300 nanosieverts per hour, apparently unaffected by the North's nuclear test. (Yonhap)
