What caused radiation spike in north west China: North Korea, Europe or something else?

SCMP ^ | 30 December, 2017 | Stephen Chen

[TigerLikesRooster]

What caused radiation spike in north west China: North Korea, Europe or something else?

Levels of iodine-129 in capital of Shaanxi province peaked two days after hydrogen bomb test 2,000km away

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 30 December, 2017, 8:30am

UPDATED : Saturday, 30 December, 2017, 11:17pm

Radiation levels in a Chinese city nearly 2,000km from a North Korean nuclear test site spiked following Pyongyang’s latest and most powerful nuclear weapons test in September, according to Chinese scientists.

However, the spike in iodine-129 levels Xian was probably not related to the detonation of a 100-kilotonne hydrogen bomb in a tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site on September 3 and was more likely to have originated in Europe, they said.

The spike was recently declassified by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, prompting heated discussion among researchers about its possible cause, with some disputing the Europe theory.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Chinese experts quoted in this article speculates about the possible origin. They ruled N. Korea and Europe out. The leaves another suspect, Russia, which is widely believed to be a source of jump in radiation level in Europe a few months ago. Instead they suspect a leak in Xian's nuclear facilities. I found this omission of Russia interesting. Have they known nuclear accidents in Xian for months but were not allowed to talk about it until now? Even though this took the form of speculation, since this could still be a state serect technically.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[ClearCase_guy]

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[SandRat]

I would hazard a guess, that it was Rocket Man.

[nevadapatriot]

Obviously the other end of the tunnel was Shaanxi province. Duh!

[Rebelbase]

Wouldn’t there be higher radiation spikes in locations closer to the source than one 2000 miles away?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Not sure which location you are talking about. If you are referring to NK, there has been little change in radiation level around NK test sites. No report from China or U.S.. So it is not a suspect. As for Russia, there were report of high level of radiation at the time. So even if it is far away, it could be another suspect. But it is not mentioned in the article.

Since Chinese experts are going straight to Xian as a culprit instead of mentioning Russia even though they raised even the possibility of Europe which is more remote than Russia's, it is possible that they knew it all along. Yes it would be definitely higher if it came from the city itself. They probably knew the answer, but tiptoed around the possibility.

[NonValueAdded]

KI, get your KI