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Spike in airborne radioactivity detected in Europe

DEFCON Warning System

Director
Staff member
German officials say that a spike in radioactivity has been detected in the air in Western and Central Europe but there's no threat to human health.

The Federal Office for Radiation Protection said Thursday that elevated levels of the isotope Ruthenium-106 have been reported in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France since Sept. 29.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-spike-airborne-radioactivity-europe.html#jCp
 
Where is the spike coming from? I read that they think Hungary. But wouldn't their levels be much higher than just a little more elevated than the other countries. Could this be from NK last test?
 
smfoxchase said:
Where is the spike coming from? I read that they think Hungary. But wouldn't their levels be much higher than just a little more elevated than the other countries. Could this be from NK last test?

Possibly Sweden they had a little mishap the day before detection started? Nk issues would be more china and japan's problem, Europe is to far away .
 
What about CERN switzerland particle collider. Never know really, ik I heard they been doing many tests lattly, new technology on a mass scale could cause unintended very very light radioactive isotopes of all kinds perhaps across Europe.
 
Two uses of 106 eye melanoma treatment and satellite power. Could it be from a sat breaking up in atmosphere?
 
krzepice1976 said:
germany source
http://www.bfs.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/BfS/DE/2017/012.html

Here is the google translation of that article:
The cause of the recently detected slightly increased measured values ​​of radioactive ruthenium-106 is still unclear. However, they are highly likely to return to a place of origin in the southern Urals. This is indicated by calculations by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection ( BfS ). Other areas in southern Russia, however, must continue to be considered. An accident in a nuclear power plant can be excluded as a cause, since only ruthenium-106 was detected. Because of the very low radioactivity concentrations in Germany, there is no health risk to the population.

In view of the fact that Russia is to be assumed as the source of the radioactive release, the Federal Ministry of the Environment expects both responsible Russian agencies, as well as the IAEA, to contribute to the elucidation as soon as possible, and provide reliable information on the cause of the increased ruthenium levels.

Ruthenium-106 ( Ru -106) is used, among other things, as a source of radiation for cancer therapy. In addition, ruthenium-106 is rarely used in so-called " radioisotope thermoelectric generators" ( RTG ), which serve the power supply of satellites. Ruthenium can also occur during the reprocessing of nuclear fuel elements.

At slightly different locations in Europe, some slightly higher values ​​of ruthenium have been detected in the air since 29.09.2017, including a total of six stations of the German Weather Service ( DWD) and several European stations, such as Austria and Italy. By declaring the spread of radioactive substances in the atmosphere can be limited the areas in which the release could be. According to estimates, the release of the radioactive material took place in the last week of September.

The values ​​measured in Europe are very low levels of radioactivity that are not harmful to health. For example, the highest concentration of ruthenium in Görlitz measured in Germany is about 5 millibecquerel per cubic meter of air. Even with constant inhalation over the period of one week, this results in a dose that is lower than that which is absorbed by the natural ambient radiation in an hour. The measurements at the other stations (Arkona / Ruegen, Greifswald, Angermünde, Cottbus and Fürstenzell / Bavaria) are even lower.

The BfS permanently evaluates all available measurements of radioactive substances in the atmosphere.
 
Obreid said:
DEFCONWarningSystem said:
Obreid said:
Two uses of 106 eye melanoma treatment and satellite power. Could it be from a sat breaking up in atmosphere?

Very doubtful. That would have been reported.

Makes sense

An attempted launch of a satellite that exploded on the launch pad, maybe?
 
Two articles follow up on this incident. One from The Sun and one from Russia Today.

I am presenting both to give both sides of the reporting.
VLAD NEWS Scientists puzzled as Europe is mysteriously showered in radioactive particles…and they think it came from Russia

German scientists say there has been a slight increase in the amount of particles of the isotope Ruthenium-106 in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4659356/scientists-puzzled-as-europe-is-mysteriously-showered-in-radioactive-particles-and-they-think-it-came-from-russia/
Germany’s Office for Radiation Protection reported increased radioactivity in parts of central and western Europe over the past week. The heightened levels were detected at several trace measuring stations in Europe, and at six locations in Germany.

The particles are ruthenium-106, an isotope used in radiotherapy for eye tumors, and at times in radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) which provide power to satellites. An increase of ruthenium-106 has been detected in the air in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

https://www.rt.com/news/406260-radioactive-particles-europe-spike/
 
UPDATE:

The French Nuclear Safety Authority has now published their result of the investigation:

IRSN-carte-Ru-106_20171109.jpg

For the most plausible zone of release, the quantity of Ruthenium 106 released estimated by IRSN simulations is very important, between 100 and 300 teraBecquerels. The release, accidental with regard to the quantity released, would have occurred during the last week of September 2017.

Because of the quantities released, the consequences of an accident of this magnitude in France would have required to implement locally measures of protection of the populations on a radius of the order of a few kilometres around the location of the release.

http://www.irsn.fr/EN/newsroom/News/Pages/20171109_Detection-of-Ruthenium-106-in-France-and-in-Europe-Results-of-IRSN-investigations.aspx
 
A Radiation Cloud, and a Mystery, From Russia

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/world/europe/russia-radiation-cloud.html?referer=https://t.co/lNuoFOuc3I?amp=1
 
So would this have been a possible Nuclear test or a Nuclear failure? Such as chernobyl?
 
DirtyDevil69 said:
So would this have been a possible Nuclear test or a Nuclear failure? Such as chernobyl?

Almost certainly a nuclear accident of some sort, not a weapons test. No one can conduct an underground nuclear weapon detonation anywhere on the planet without seismographs picking up on it immediately.
 
DirtyDevil69 said:
So would this have been a possible Nuclear test or a Nuclear failure? Such as chernobyl?

Almost certainly a nuclear accident of some sort, not a weapons test. No one can conduct an underground nuclear weapon detonation anywhere on the planet without seismographs picking up on it immediately.
 
DirtyDevil69 said:
So would this have been a possible Nuclear test or a Nuclear failure? Such as chernobyl?

Maybe..
Following Putin’s speech, numerous US experts told media that they were aware Russia’s attempts to build something like what he described in his speech: A nuclear missile powered by an onboard nuclear reactor. The United States tried – and failed – to deliver something similar in the late 1950s.

The experts went on to tell ABC television that Russia has, in fact, been dabbling in something like this, but that Moscow’s version has been crashing over and over in the Arctic.

They didn’t supply a timeline for the crashes. But Bøhmer suggested that two incidents of iodine 131 pollution measured over Northern and Central Europe between January and March of 2017, and again in January and February this year, might have some connection to those possible wrecks.

The levels of iodine – which has a half life of only eight days – were picked up in both cases by measuring stations in Finland and Norway, which, of course, both abut the Arctic.  In the earlier event the releases were confirmed by Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and France as well.

In the event of some sort of nuclear test, says Bøhmer, particularly in a country where nuclear safety wasn’t much of a concern – and both the Russia and the US have a dark history here – iodine could, as it has during nuclear tests in the past,  show up in the atmosphere, along with a host of others isotopes on top, such as strontium and cesium.

Neither of these last two isotopes, which have a half lives measured in decades, showed up in the detected releases of iodine. But Bøhmer suggests that the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which released massive amounts of both isotopes into the environment, could serve to mask their detection in the recent batch of readings.

On both occasions – and unlike the recent detection of radioactive ruthenium, in which Russia’s nuclear reprocessing facility Mayak remains a prime suspect – there were no culprits who could be traced to the not unhealthy but certainly suspicious blooms in iodine 131.

http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2018-03-are-putins-threatened-missiles-already-polluting-europe-with-radioactivity-maybe
 
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