South Korean Officials Verify Radiation Traces from North Korea's Nuclear Test

by YuGee / Sep 16, 2016 06:45 AM EDT

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - MAY 25: South Korean radiologists take part in an exercise in dealing with a possible radioactive terror attack at the Kimpo airport, on May 25, 2004 in Seoul, South Korea. The drill comes amid international concerns about terrorism a

South Korea has yet to retrieve any traces of radioactive components from the latest nuclear test of the North Korean government. This was announced by a nuclear safety commission on Thursday, further confirming that the country is still safe from radioactive waste.

In a statement, the commission stated, "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 Korea Herald also reported that since Monday, two days after North Korea successfully carried out its latest nuclear detonation test, the commission has been screening samples every 12 hours. The tests are conducted to verify whether the communist nation has in fact administered another nuclear test.

The statement also mentioned, "The commission believes its failures 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."

The commission further added that South Korea's background radiation presently stands at the usual level of 50-300 nanosieverts per hour, obviously unaffected by North Korea's nuclear test.

On the morning of September 9, North Korea executed its fifth nuclear test and announced that the country has a weapon light and small enough to be placed atop a ballistic missile. The latest nuclear test was presumed to have been twice as powerful as the fourth test conducted in January. The weapon in the latest nuclear provocation was estimated to have a 10 kiloton yield and was approximately four kilotons more than the one previously used in the nuclear test earlier this year.

Following the North's missile and nuclear provocations, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called for strong and effective actions against North Korea's threats and said that a U.S. anti-missile defense system is needed in order to protect the country and its citizens from potential nuclear and missile attacks from the North.