Asikkala radioactive object was an unused uranium fuel pellet

A radioactive object found in an estate in Asikkala in 2024 was an unused, low-enriched uranium fuel pellet for a nuclear power plant, Yle reports. It posed no immediate danger to people or the environment.

The object was examined at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany. The findings indicated that it originated in the Soviet Union around the turn of the 1980s and 1990s.

Police in Häme received a call from the emergency response centre in October 2024 after someone reported finding a possibly radioactive object in Asikkala. Police investigated the case as a suspected offence involving the use of nuclear energy.

The preliminary investigation has ended because the object was part of a deceased person’s estate and the suspected offender has died.