Report: Russia Radiation Level High MOSCOW (AP) -- Radioactive waste dumped by the Soviet Union in Arctic seas is leaking through its containers, causing radiation levels to reach up to 100 times normal in some areas, officials said Friday. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said radiation levels in waters off the Novaya Zemlya archipelago exceed the norm dozens of times, and in the nearby Stepovoi Gulf by 100 times, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Radiation levels in the Barents Sea are also above normal, the ministry said. Several containers that the Soviet Union used in Arctic radioactive dumps in the 1960s have become depressurized and toxic waste is leaking out, the ministry said. Chemical weapons dumps in the Baltic Sea are also causing contamination with heavy metals and arsenic, the ministry said, citing a study it conducted over the past three years. Sediment concentrations of heavy metals in several areas of the Baltic Sea are 10 to 100 times above normal levels, and arsenic levels are also high, the ministry said, according to ITAR-Tass.
