Radioactive pollution of Aras River up in the air
While an Iranian newspaper confirmed the rumor that the Aras River is contaminated with radioactive substances, a provincial official ruled out the possibility that Armenia’s nuclear power plant is leaking into the river.
Payam-e Ma newspaper claims that its independent investigations have detected signs of radioactive pollution as well as high levels of magnesium, lead, arsenic, and more than 50 other pollutants in a water sample taken from a part of the river adjacent to the Khoda Afarin Dam and Mughan plain.
The report speculates with confidence that nuclear sewage from Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia has been dumped into the river without administering the necessary treatment, leading to a rise in the number of diagnosed stomach cancers in Iranians living down the river. However, the East Azarbaijan Province’s deputy governor for political and social affairs dismisses the report.
“The introduction of radioactive materials from Armenia’s Metsamor plant to the Aras River is virtually impossible because of how far away the plant is from that area,” Torab Mohammadi said, adding that the plant is considered to be safe in that regard and there have been no reports of any leakage from it. “But the sewage of an Armenian copper factory can be easily seen to be dumped into the river, which diminished after we objected, but the factory keeps contaminating the river secretly at night.”