ARKHANGELSK. Aug 21 (Interfax) - A medical examination of residents of the Nyonoksa village in the Arkhangelsk region, outside which an explosion had occurred at the military range, is not planned, Valery Mashenkov, head of the Nyonoksa territorial department at the Severodvinsk administration, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"Last Monday, the deputy head of Rospotrebnadzor [Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare] was here. Water and air samples were collected. Everything is normal. Why would we examine the people, if there are no grounds for an examination?" Mashenkov said.
He also denied media reports alleging that medics from Moscow and Arkhangelsk are to arrive in Nyonoksa to examine the population.
The press service for the Severodvinsk administration, in turn, told Interfax that background radiation levels are currently normal in Nyonoksa, the situation in the village is calm, and that no announcements of the planned activities at the range had been made.
It emerged on social networks earlier that doctors from Moscow would be sent to Nyonoksa to examine the local residents who were present at the village, when the incident at the military range had taken place.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on August 8 that the lethal incident had taken place at the Severodvinsk testing range.
Rosatom said later that a rocket with "radio-isotope power sources" had exploded during tests on a sea platform. The incident killed seven people, including five Rosatom employees and two officers of the Defense Ministry. Three army servicemen and three Rosatom specialists were injured.
On August 8, the authorities in Severodvinsk and the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgidromet) both said there was a brief surge in background radiation in Severodvinsk. According to Swedish media, no radiation abnormalities were registered in Scandinavia after the explosion at the test range in northern Russia.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no threat of elevated background radiation after the accident, that the situation was under control and that preventive measures were in place.