Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A RADIOACTIVE CLOUD of pollution over Europe in late-September indicates that an incident happened in a nuclear facility in Russia or Kazakhstan, the French nuclear safety institute IRSN has said in a statement.
Though the extact location could not be pinpointed, the institute said the “plausible zone of release” lies between the Urals and Volga river.
The levels recorded in Europe pose “no consequence to human health and for the environment.”
The IRSN has said a significant quantity of Ruthenium 106 – a man-made radioactive nuclide made when splitting atoms – was released.
According to its simulations and data it says between 100 and 300 teraBecquerels were released at the source.
They noted that if an accident of similar proportion happened in France, they would have been required to implement measures of protection on the local population within a few kilometre radius around the release point.
Any foodstuffs caught in a few tens of kilometres of the origin site would exceed the maximum permitted levels of teraBecquerels.
Though the IRSN considers the importation of foodstuffs from the origin area to be low, they precaution random checks as particular foodstuffs (like mushrooms) can contain high levels of teraBecquerels if exposed close to the source of an event.
They do note however, that the potential health risk associated with this particular “scenario is also very low.”
The Irish EPA was monitoring the issue at the time, and found no ruthenium in the air around Ireland.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They said similar when Chernobyl blew…harmless indeed!
@Alan Walter Gallagher: They also dismissed reports of one of the Kursk exploding as a ‘minor technical difficulty’, refusing offers of naval assistance from the USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Israel. By the time they finally allowed foreign assistance it was too late for the sailors. The Kremlin’s paranoia truly beggars belief.
@Harry Whitehead: Whilst what you said is true, in this case it was the French nuclear safety institute who said that whatever may have happened was not in any way dangerous
@Harry: So if the boot was on the other foot could you see the US going to Russians or anywhere in the East for help? Nope.
@Alan Walter Gallagher: we’ve a decent enough visual warning system here in Ireland, our own gov! They always look after themselves first, so when they’re not seen out for a prolonged period, or are taking extended work trips abroad, then the rest of us are in trouble.
Then after any disaster, they just come back and implement a mass immigration drive to replace us all. We’re just commodities to them, replaceable units that generate tax money.
@Alan Walter Gallagher: Chernobyl killed 50 people. Hardly a disaster.
@Alan Walter Gallagher: local autorities are still denying this incident even took place. There’s some clues in russian newsfeed indicating possible location in Chelyabinsk region, where the fearsome Mayak plant is operating. Explosion at a Mayak’s storage facility in 1958 led to massive nuclear pollution of western Siberia, and it’s still known less than Chernobyl event.
@William Grogan: Hundreds died due to acute radiation sickness; about half a million were exposed to radionuclides in a few days after that. So, it’s still hardly a disaster?
@William Grogan: What planet are you on? Have you seen the rate of cancer in the past 30 years? In my own experience more than half of my childhood friends had dead parents before the age of 18. You can throw all the nonsense statistics you like out there but nothing will convince me Chernobyl wasn’t a huge factor…
I’ll just correct the headline for you. Possible nuclear accident of no consequence to humans or the environment might have happened in either Kazakhstan or Russia
Back in 1970 my uncle brought a generator to Carnsoe Point in the back of an ice cream van. He says it was bigger than Woodstock.(the festival)
People give out about the Hippie generation but we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their social awareness and activism. Ireland is still a green and beautiful land with no nuclear power destroying the environment.
“My name is Nuke Power, a terror am I,
I can cause such destruction on land, sea or sky.
Your Minister tells you I’ll do you no harm,
If he locks me up in that house down in Carne.
Such a beautiful country I see all around,
Where people and flowers and fishes abound.
I’ll change that whole scene in ten seconds, I warn,
If he locks me up in that house down in Carne”
All together now.
@Dean Moriarity: Yep, lets just keep burning tons of coal. That will work great going into the future. FYI some of our electricity is already being generated by nuclear facilities in the UK.
@Dean Moriarity: your comment doesnt make sense, we burn, coal , oil and peat huge polluters,
@Les Boyd:
Yeah, but no one’s going to destroy the planet by firing coal at each other.
@Dean Moriarity: Slightly off topic. I read an interesting piece on the ‘free love’ aspect in the hippie generation. It allowed men to get access to sex without the burden of performance, whereas women could use it to satisfy their innate hypergamy needs.
@Les Boyd: while moaning about wind turbines and solar farms
@Dean Moriarity: So Dean, you’re obviously a scientifically illiterate git, explain how Nuclear Power, “destroys the environment”. Try not to bull shit.
Headline states Russia but the first paragraph says Russia or Kazakhstan. I know the French nuclear crowd aren’t sure where it came from but that is a very misleading headline
@John Cotter: Russia are all pure evil in all matters made up or otherwise these days. On an unrelated matter ISIS were yesterday wiped out from Syria thanks to Russia, Iran and the only recently evil Syrian government.
@Ranty McCrank: Thanks to Russia, Syrian govt., FSA, SDF, the US and various Kurdish groups, you mean? Oh I forgot, only the groups you like are responsible for wiping out ISIS. Convenient.
Have you read the recently released independent UN-OPCW report on the Syrian government’s use of Sarin in Khan Sheikhoun? Good bedtime reading for all dictator-worshippers.
@Malachi: the US? Hahaha the us funded and trained Al Nusra and pre-ISIS. They took out a few government armed targets too and then at 1 minute to midnight pretended to battle ISIS. Wake up. This must be the 5th attempt to frame the Syrian government for chemical weapon use. The last one the gas turned out to be manufactured in Germany and handed to Islamist groups from Turkey. Back when erdogans son was buying cheap oil from ISIS and it’s affiliates.
@Ranty McCrank: Good lad. There have been numerous independent investigations by international bodies on chemical weapons attacks in Syria and Assad’s gruseome regime has been implicated in the vast majority.
Then again, dictator-worshippers will never accept that Assad is a mass murderer. Independent evidence means nothing. Keep complaining about a lack of evidence then ignore it when it comes out. Despicable, stomach churning apologia for a tyrant.
@Ranty McCrank: As for buying oil from ISIS – you realise the Assad regime has being doing that for years, right? I don’t hear you complaining about that, but hey, maybe you just didn’t know…
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/assad-oil-isis-2016-4
I had seen articles querying where the rise in radioactive particles over Europe in recent weeks. It’s good the mystery has been solved but not good that it’s a nuclear incident . I’m a bit sceptical of the harmless tag applied to these kinds in incidents. Fukushima actually pumped out a lot more radiation that we were told and we are still dealing with that release into the world’s oceans.
@Catherine Sims: Fukushima released an infinitesimal amount of radiation. There are billions of tons of radioactive material in the oceans already. Why can’t you illiterates get an education?
September? And we’re only hearing about it now. The sooner we get away from nuclear power the better.
@Ciaran Fairley: ….why? I presume you haven’t a clue?
In that case it could have come from Ukraine either? Unless it was N. Korean lol.
There is NO safe amount of radioactivity, it all has an effect?
@Alois Irlmaier: you’re exposed to radiation from rocks (granite), the sun, cosmic rays, basically everything around us emits a certain amount of radiation, because they all have some atoms that decay. Even our own bodies release a small amount. It is not possible to have zero contact with radiation, the question is whether we’re exposed to more than the background normal.
@Darragh Bailey: The radioactive element they found was Ruthenium, used in satellites. Even those that burn up in the atmosphere as they burn falling to Earth?
Ah well, if it was only between 100 and 300 TeraBecquerels, well thats OK.
The Mushroom Policy keep you in the dark and feed you full of s#%#
TOTAL BOLLACKS,, ,no harm
Who sold those Russians the uranium?
I was told in Almaty a few years back that around 2/3s of Kazakhstan (and Siberia) is detrimentally dosed with radiation from on-going ‘little’ accidents.’Losing giant canisters of nuclear waste from the backs of trains’ seemed to be the most frequent story on their English news channel.
The civil defensive are on high alert again!
“Ruthenium is part of the platinum group of metals.
It is a hard, silvery-white metal with a shiny surface.
Its melting point is about 2,300 to 2,450°C (4,200 to 4,400°F)
Its discovery is credited to Polish chemist Jedrzej Sniadecki, who announced the find in 1808.
Chemists were unable to confirm Sniadecki’s work and, as a result, the element was rediscovered twice more in later years.
The primary uses of ruthenium are in alloys and as catalysts for industrial processes.
Ruthenium-106 is an isotope, or variant with a different number of neutrons in its nucleus, used for radiation therapy to treat eye tumours.
It is sometimes used as a source of energy, known as radioisotope thermoelectric generators, used to power satellites.”
Could be from a satellite then?
have your say