Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) detected on June 16 and 17 small amounts of the radioactive isotopes cobalt, ruthenium and cesium (Co-60, Ru-103, Cs-134 and Cs-137).
STUK says the measurements were made in Helsinki where analysis is available on the same day. “At other stations, samples are collected during the week, so results from last week will be ready later.” Likely from a reactor
All these isotopes indicate that the release comes from a nuclear-reactor. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8 days, and given the small amount measured in the north, this isotope could be gone before the radioactive cloud reached the southern parts of Finland and Sweden a week after the first measurements in the north. That be, if the release was somewhere in the Arctic or northwestern Russia and winds were blowing south or southwest.
Neither of the Scandinavian radiation agencies will speculate about the origin.
At least it is a microscopic amount.
Still amazed that we can detect such minuscule amount of a single isotope, hundreds of miles from the source.
I wonder if the Russians are testing that nuclear cruise missile again? They had a pad explosion back in March-April I think.
Any chance this is related to the mystery explosion in Iran?
Isn’t that how the Chernobyl disaster first came to public notice, sky-high radioactivity readings over Western Europe? The uproar and alarm was so great that the USSR finally had to admit to a minor accident . . . Of course it was anything but minor. This event sounds genuinely minor, thank heaven.
Therefore, you should supplement with iodine/iodide, to saturate your thyroid which blocks radioactive iodine from absorbing.
How many roads must a man walk down?
The buried lede.
Possibly another Russian test of a fifth generation nuclear weapon, i.e., one using lasers to ignite a fusion reaction rather than a fissionable trigger.