Anyone want to comment on this?
http://news.yahoo.com/nuke-agency-reports-unusual-radiation-europe-13450...
VIENNA (AP) — Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don't seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday. The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March. The "very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere," the agency said in a statement. It said such radioisotope will lose much of its radiation in about eight days. However, an official familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said the release appeared to be continuing. The agency said that it was investigating. In Prague, an official at the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety said he was "100 percent sure" that the radiation had not come from any Czech nuclear power plant — or from any other source on Czech territory. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media, the official said tests are under way around the country to try and identify the source. The Czechs are betting heavily on nuclear power and have plans to dramatically increase production — a move that would give the country a place among Europe's most nuclear-dependent nations. They currently rely on six nuclear reactors for 33 percent of their total electricity. The government hopes to at least double that output. That's in stark contrast to its neighbors: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to phase out nuclear energy by 2022 following the meltdown at the Fukushima plants, and Switzerland has followed suit. Austria abandoned nuclear energy after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and strictly opposes the Czech nuclear program.
Now it's in Hungary, too.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.cbc3ed79698bb9cab8ad6a92169c...
Abnormal radioactivity also in Hungary, no risk seen
Hungary was the latest European country on Saturday to confirm higher than usual levels of radioactivity in the air, although like others it maintained that this did not pose any health risks.
"In Hungary, a higher-than-usual concentration of iodine-131 particles was registered in Budapest and Miskolc (in the northeast)," Geza Safrany, the head of the national research institute for radiology OSSKI, said in a statement.
He added that the increase was very slight and did not pose any health risk.
What lay behind this elevated radioactivity is still unclear, he also said.
On Friday, the UN atomic watchdog in Vienna said it had received information from Czech authorities that "very low levels of iodine-131" had been detected in recent days in the air in the Czech Republic and in other countries.
Poland, Slovakia and Austria quickly confirmed they too had detected abnormal levels in the last few weeks.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said however it did not believe this presented any risk to human health nor that it was caused by the nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant earlier this year.
In Poland, a spokesman for the atomic energy agency told AFP that the cause may lie in Pakistan, where officials were forced to repair a leak at the nearly 40-year-old Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) on October 19.
After the incident, an official from KANUPP had told AFP that no radioactivity had been recorded and none of their staff had been affected.
The Vienna-based agency said Friday it was working with its counterparts to determine the cause and origin of the iodine-131, which has a half-life of around eight days, and that it would provide further information as it became available.
My bet is that it is from
My bet is that it is from Fukushima, since criticality has been happening again. That said, how much has come across the U.S during the past 2 weeks? We don't know, cuz our EPA is not measuring anymore, or if they are, they are not sharing info with US citizens.
No, it's from space:
No, it's from space:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060469/Radiation-Europe-UN-nucl...
Not likely
That article says "Particles" have been detected (not just the usual gamma rays), so it's much more likely to have originated from within our atmosphere.
We get particles from space too
It's not just gamma rays that come from space; it's also particles. Look up "solar wind".
The above poster is correct; the observed radiation is from space.
I have been wondering all
I have been wondering all along if the radiation detected over large parts of Europe in Nov. 2011 was from the failed launch of a satellite, which was briefly reported, but then nothing else was heard. Some satellites have nuclear reactors for power generation.
Satellites don't have reactors
Satellites don't have reactors; they have RTGs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator
An RTG has radioactive material as a heat source, and the heat is converted to electricity. However, it's not a reactor, there's no fission, and hence no I-131 which is a fission product.
Did you read on on the
Did you read on on the article you quoted?? The radioisotopes of choice to generate the necessary heat include Plutonium, Strontium, Cesium and others!!!! Nice to know they may come down with a downed satellite.
would think a medical supply facility Release not patients
Prof Malcolm Sperrin, Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, said the most likely explanation was that the iodine had escaped from patients who had undergone medical treatments which use the radiation.
He said: "The amount or concentration of the isotope is not stated but the response of the competent authorities suggests that the risk is vanishingly small.
"The fact that it is reported at all may be an indication of the sensitivity of the environmental measuring stations and the current interest in the aftermath of Fukushima."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/czechrepublic/8885036/R...
Doesn't pass the smell test.
Doesn't pass the smell test. Wasn't this the identical explanation Pennsylvania health inspectors came up with for the same sort of results in city water supplies?
There explanation is either
...the truth
...convenient excuse, or
...a lie.
I'm torn myself. Damned if I can figure it out.
Valid question raised tepco tells IAEA data not vise versa
TEPCO has been touting their “cold shutdown” of the damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi for months. Even though they were using the term quite liberally.
Now TEPCO has admitted that “it was undeniable that fission reaction had occurred.”
Yesterday TEPCO was citing it as a possibility.
Then there is this strange statement from a senior official of NISA: “Senior official Yoshinori Moriyama said it is difficult to determine the amount of nuclear fuel remaining in the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor. He said his agency will assess the situation and judge if it is still possible to stably lower temperatures in the reactor and containment vessel.”
Frequently “containment” gets used interchangeably as slang for the Reactor Pressure Vessel and the Containment Vessel. The RPV being the steel container that holds the fuel and the Containment Vessel being the large concrete and steel vessel to hold the RPV with the intention of containing any accidental releases. So is the official of NISA miss-speaking? Or are they admitting they are unsure that the fuel is in the Containment Vessel? If this is the correct interpretation of the statement it would be a major change in plant status that they are considering the fuel may have escaped containment.
Then there is the rice with Iodine 131 contamination. CRMS found rice harvested in October that contained Iodine 131. Since it is a short lived isotope it would need to be both recent and in significant amounts for it to show up in rice harvested in October. TEPCO’s radiation reports from the reactors and around the plant have been posted with Iodine 131 as “non detected” for months. Something doesn’t add up.
Now with recriticality confirmed at Unit 2 and the possibility of the same at units 1 and 3 and the rice finding what else isn’t TEPCO telling the public?
http://houseoffoust.com/group/?p=3894
Or perhaps from a reoccurring meltdown of daiichi ? Comical
(Reuters) - Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected in Europe but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the U.N. nuclear agency said Friday, saying it was seeking to find the source.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based U.N. watchdog, said it did not believe the radioactive particles were from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant after its emergency in March.
Experts said the origin of the radiation -- which has been spreading for about two weeks -- remained a mystery but could come from many possible sources ranging from medical laboratories or hospitals to nuclear submarines.
The Czech Republic's nuclear security watchdog said it had tipped off the IAEA after detecting the radiation it thought was coming from abroad but not from a nuclear power plant. It suggested it may come from production of radiopharmaceuticals.
Germany's Environment Ministry said slightly higher levels of radioactive iodine had been measured in the north of the country, ruling out that it came from a nuclear power plant.""
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-nuclear-iodine-iaea-idUSTRE...
Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Sweden also reported traces at very low levels that did not pose a health risk.
Iodine-131, linked to cancer if found in high doses, can contaminate products such as milk and vegetables.
Paddy Regan, a professor of nuclear physics at Britain's University of Surrey, said the suggestion that it may have leaked from a radiopharmaceuticals maker "sounds very sensible and totally reasonable."
He said since iodine was used in the treatment of thyroid conditions it was also likely that hospitals in many European countries would have it in their stores.
"It would be very unlikely for it to have come from Fukushima since the accident was so many months ago and iodine-131 has a brief half-life," he said.
Iodine-131 is a short-lived radioisotope that has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days, the IAEA said.
Massimo Sepielli, head of the nuclear fission unit of Italy's national alternative energy body ENEA said any number of sources could be to blame for the readings.
"It could be coming from the transporting of (nuclear) material, it could come from a hospital ... it could even come from a nuclear submarine, even if it's a more complicated possibility ... but you can't rule that out."
CAREFULLY CONTROLLED
Professor Malcolm Sperrin, director of medical physics at Britain's Royal Berkshire Hospital, said any link with Fukushima was extremely unlikely.
"It is far more likely that the iodine may be as a result of excretion by patients undergoing medical treatment. Whilst such patients are carefully controlled, some release of iodine into the environment may be inevitable but would certainly be well below any limits where health detriment would even begin to be an issue for concern," he said.
The IAEA said the Czech Republic's nuclear safety body had informed it that "very low levels" of iodine-131 had been measured in the atmosphere over the country in recent days.
"The IAEA has learned about similar measurements in other locations across Europe," the brief statement said.
"The IAEA is working with its counterparts to determine the cause and origin of the iodine-131."
The Czech watchdog said it had detected iodine-131 at a number of monitoring stations since late October. It said there was no health risk from the iodine.
"It was detected by our radiation monitoring network, with probability bordering on certainty the source is abroad. It is iodine-131 and we have asked the IAEA if they know what the source could be," Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety chief Dana Drabova told Reuters.
Officials in Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Finland, France, Britain, Switzerland, Poland and Norway said they had not detected any abnormal radiation levels. Romania's watchdog said there had been no incident at the country's sole nuclear plant.
Austria's Environment Ministry said small levels were measured in the east and north of the Alpine country, saying the estimated dose level for the population was one 40,000th of the dose of radiation received in a transatlantic flight.
In the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, an earthquake followed by a massive tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima plant in Japan, causing a reactor meltdown and leakage of radiation, including of iodine.
In the days and weeks after the accident, tiny amounts of iodine-131 believed to have come from Fukushima were detected as far away as Iceland and other parts of Europe, as well as in the United States.