6 ms·

Can someone describe the significance/insignificance/context of this?

by jshmrsn 10y ago

cjensen 10y ago
The ISRN appears to be a French government agency. They are claiming to have detected non-natural levels of radioactive iodine across Europe. The implication is that someone, somewhere had a nuclear accident and did not report it.
- raverbashing 10y ago
  Yes, it stands for "institute for radioprotection and nuclear safety"
- frik 10y ago
  There was a recent incident in late Jan - explosion at nuclear power plant Flamanville in France: https://www.wsj.com/articles/explosion-at-edf-nuclear-power-plant-in-flamanville-1486644471 https://www.wsj.com/articles/explosion-at-edf-nuclear-power-...
  - stymaar 10y ago
    This incident was not located in a nuclear area and it hasn't been classified as a nuclear incident. Can't be responsible for iodine emission in the atmosphere.
  - VLM 10y ago
    That plant is a PWR, the water/steam in the turbine loop never contacts the fun stuff in the reactor core, there's a heat exchanger in between. Hydrogen cooled turbogenerators are a thing, although I don't know if this plant used them, probably did. Nice and cool, high efficiency. The press release claims an alternator cooling fan overheated or whatever and that caused symptoms that sound like a hydrogen cooled turbogenerator having a nice leak and subsequent fire. Doesn't mention a steam leak. So that's like one more heat exchanger away from the fun stuff. Explosions and fires and fire fighting can cause disruption and raise dust in theory, but the isotope detected has a very short half life so this wasn't a leak from a decade ago getting washed into the environment by a fire hose. Its not seeming very likely.
aeleos 10y ago
Iodine has a short half-life (8 days) which is the time for half of the material to decay. This means that somewhere in europe, recently, someone is creating / releasing radioactive iodine. However, the levels are extremely low, so it isn't dangerous.
bitL 10y ago
I guess something happened in the eastern part of Europe, possibly Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland etc. The event was small, yet it was certainly nuclear due to a sudden increase of iodine, even if within range considered still healthy. Obviously nobody reported anything before it was picked up by detectors.
- nazgob 10y ago
  Poland does not have any significant nuclear industry, only single small research reactor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_reactor).
bootload 10y ago
"Iodine-131 is a radionuclide with a short half-life (T1/2 = 8.04 day)." Short half life, a nuclear event of some sort happened recently and nothing has been reported. I-131 is an isotope of Iodine and the source could be natural gas related, medical diagnostic OR a product of uranium and plutonium used in nuclear fission. [0] Which countries have access to plutonium? "only particulate iodine was reported." What is the source of the particles? "first found during week 2 of January 2017 in northern Norway." What countries have access to plutonium that are active near Norway? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131
- JoBrad 10y ago
  Here's a map of countries known to have or are pursuing nuclear weapons, from January 2015. http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/03/world/nuclear-weapon-states/ http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/03/world/nuclear-weapon-...
  - jawbone3 10y ago
    Doesn't list sweden, so the map is not interested in completeness.
- bootload 10y ago
  looks like the US "WC-135 Constant Phoenix" atmospheric testing aircraft is being deployed. ~ http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7758/has-there-been-a-nuclear-incident-in-the-arctic http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7758/has-there-been-a-n... and https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/832716747035680768 https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/832716747035680768
tonfa 10y ago
French version of the news mentions that it has no health impact: http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/20170213_Detection-iode-radioactif-en-Europe-durant-le-mois-de-janvier-2017.aspx#.WKjAYSHyv0o http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/201... "Ces niveaux sont sans aucune conséquence sanitaire" I suppose the interest is in understanding the source of it.

Can someone describe the significance/insignificance/context of this?

by jshmrsn 10y ago

Can someone describe the significance/insignificance/context of this?

The ISRN appears to be a French government agency. They are claiming to have detected non-natural levels of radioactive iodine across Europe. The implication is that someone, somewhere had a nuclear accident and did not report it.

raverbashing 10y ago
Yes, it stands for "institute for radioprotection and nuclear safety"
frik 10y ago
There was a recent incident in late Jan - explosion at nuclear power plant Flamanville in France: https://www.wsj.com/articles/explosion-at-edf-nuclear-power-plant-in-flamanville-1486644471 https://www.wsj.com/articles/explosion-at-edf-nuclear-power-...
- stymaar 10y ago
  This incident was not located in a nuclear area and it hasn't been classified as a nuclear incident. Can't be responsible for iodine emission in the atmosphere.
- VLM 10y ago
  That plant is a PWR, the water/steam in the turbine loop never contacts the fun stuff in the reactor core, there's a heat exchanger in between. Hydrogen cooled turbogenerators are a thing, although I don't know if this plant used them, probably did. Nice and cool, high efficiency. The press release claims an alternator cooling fan overheated or whatever and that caused symptoms that sound like a hydrogen cooled turbogenerator having a nice leak and subsequent fire. Doesn't mention a steam leak. So that's like one more heat exchanger away from the fun stuff. Explosions and fires and fire fighting can cause disruption and raise dust in theory, but the isotope detected has a very short half life so this wasn't a leak from a decade ago getting washed into the environment by a fire hose. Its not seeming very likely.

aeleos 10y ago

Iodine has a short half-life (8 days) which is the time for half of the material to decay. This means that somewhere in europe, recently, someone is creating / releasing radioactive iodine. However, the levels are extremely low, so it isn't dangerous.

bitL 10y ago

I guess something happened in the eastern part of Europe, possibly Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland etc. The event was small, yet it was certainly nuclear due to a sudden increase of iodine, even if within range considered still healthy. Obviously nobody reported anything before it was picked up by detectors.

nazgob 10y ago
Poland does not have any significant nuclear industry, only single small research reactor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_reactor).

bootload 10y ago

"Iodine-131 is a radionuclide with a short half-life (T1/2 = 8.04 day)." Short half life, a nuclear event of some sort happened recently and nothing has been reported. I-131 is an isotope of Iodine and the source could be natural gas related, medical diagnostic OR a product of uranium and plutonium used in nuclear fission. [0] Which countries have access to plutonium? "only particulate iodine was reported." What is the source of the particles? "first found during week 2 of January 2017 in northern Norway." What countries have access to plutonium that are active near Norway? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine-131

JoBrad 10y ago
Here's a map of countries known to have or are pursuing nuclear weapons, from January 2015. http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/03/world/nuclear-weapon-states/ http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/03/world/nuclear-weapon-...
- jawbone3 10y ago
  Doesn't list sweden, so the map is not interested in completeness.
bootload 10y ago
looks like the US "WC-135 Constant Phoenix" atmospheric testing aircraft is being deployed. ~ http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7758/has-there-been-a-nuclear-incident-in-the-arctic http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/7758/has-there-been-a-n... and https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/832716747035680768 https://twitter.com/CivMilAir/status/832716747035680768

tonfa 10y ago

French version of the news mentions that it has no health impact: http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/20170213_Detection-iode-radioactif-en-Europe-durant-le-mois-de-janvier-2017.aspx#.WKjAYSHyv0o http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/201... "Ces niveaux sont sans aucune conséquence sanitaire" I suppose the interest is in understanding the source of it.