Search form

menu menu
  • Daily & Weekly newsletters
  • Buy & download The Bulletin
  • Comment on our articles

Radioactive packages pass daily through Belgium

08:14 31/07/2017

More than 10 times a day, flights through Belgian airports transport a package of radioactive material, including passenger flights, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. This information came to light on 13 July, when a radioactive package in flight from Cairo to Brussels was poorly packed.

As a result, passengers and luggage personnel were exposed to a low dose of radiation. The radioactive source should never have been allowed to leave for transport in Cairo, says the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) which is investigating the incident.

The first results of the investigation indicate that there has never been a life-threatening situation for passengers or luggage personnel at the Brussels Airport, nor at the stopover in Zurich, as the radiation level was not high enough to cause concern.

“Exposure was five to six times above the limit, but there is no need to worry: this is not a life-threatening dose," explains Simon Coenen of FANC in the newspaper.

Written by Robyn Boyle