Russia: Spike in Radioactivity Unrelated to Nuclear Plant

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities denied Friday that a radioactivity spike in the air over Europe resulted from a nuclear fuel plant leak in the Urals, saying their probe has found no release of radioactivity there.

Andrei Ivanov of Russia's Rosatom state nuclear corporation said that an inspection of the Mayak plant has proven that it wasn't the source of Ruthenium-106, a radioactive isotope spotted in the air over Europe and Russia in late September and early October.

France's nuclear safety agency said last month that increased levels of Ruthenium-106 were recorded over most of Europe but posed no health or environmental risks.

The Russian panel that involved Rosatom experts has failed to identify where the isotope came from, but alleged that it could have come from a satellite that came down from orbit and disintegrated in the atmosphere.

Nuclear safety expert Rafael Arutyunian said Ruthenium-106 could be used in satellite power sources. He argued that the assumption that it came from a crashing satellite would explain its broad spread over Europe.

Arutynian, deputy head of the Institute for Safe Nuclear Energy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that a broader panel will continue investigating.

Last month, the Russian state meteorological office reported high levels of Ruthenium-106 in late September in areas close to Mayak, but Arutyunian and other experts emphasized that they were still thousands times less than the level that would pose health risks.

Environmental watchdog group Greenpeace alleged that Mayak could have been the source of a Ruthenium-106 leak, but the panel insisted that a thorough check of the plant had found no safety breaches.

Vyacheslav Usoltsev of Rosatom's safety inspectorate said that a sophisticated system of monitoring at the plant would have spotted any release of radiation.

Mayak, in the Chelyabinsk region, saw one of the world's worst nuclear accidents on Sept. 29, 1957, when a waste tank exploded, contaminating 23,000 square kilometers (9,200 square miles) and prompting authorities to evacuate 10,000 residents from neighboring regions.
 

2 BILLION Year Old NUCLEAR REACTOR Discovered in Africa

It is widely believed that the origin of earth was around 4.6 billion years ago, then about a billion years later life started to form. From there multicellular life evolved and then eventually modern humans started to populate the planet over 200,000 years ago. If you’re wondering where the 4.6 billion came from, scientists arrived at the number by finding the oldest piece of the planet they can, then figuring out how old that piece is. Of course this involves actually finding the oldest piece of the planet which is no simple matter because the Earth is always breaking down rocks into magma and then pushing it back up to the surface.

So what if we consider for a minute that our dating technique is not foolproof, maybe we didn’t find the oldest piece of the planet or perhaps radiocarbon dating isn’t as reliable as we think and what if the earth is much...MUCH older than we thought.

If you look around, there are clues found all around the world from the Great Pyramids of Egypt to the Sacsayhuaman ruins in Peru that point to the possibility that advanced prehistoric civilizations may have existed on this planet tens of thousands or even millions of years ago and in this article we will talk about one of the most intriguing finds, an ancient nuclear reactor.

In May of 1972 workers at a nuclear fuel processing plant in France found that ore sourced from a mine in the Oklo deposit in Gabon that was formed over 2 billion years ago had over 440 pounds of uranium 235 that appeared to be missing. This was scary because that much uranium could make at least 6 nuclear bombs.

After scratching their head for weeks, researchers at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) came to the conclusion that the missing uranium must have gone through a nuclear fission and split into other atoms which was extremely unlikely as this would require some very specific conditions.

The first being the size of the uranium deposit needs to exceed the length that fission-inducing neutrons travel. The second is that there needs to be a lot of uranium 235. Thirdly, there needs to be a substance that can slow the neutrons that is released when uranium nucleus splits and finally there can’t be too much boron, lithium or anything else that absorb neutrons.

Although this seems highly unlikely to occur naturally, the conclusion was that...well, it just did. Because there was really no other possible explanations for it.

An Alternative Theory

Scientists who were sent to investigate the site concluded that This nuclear reactor came into being 1.8 billion years ago, and was operational for about 500 thousand years. The results of the research were made public at a conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency and although many labeled the finding “wondrous” but “naturally occurring,” others concluded that this setup could not have occurred naturally, and therefore must have been man-made.

The case for the reactor not formed “naturally” was made by researchers who found enriched minerals at the site which would indicate that the reaction was produced and water was also found to have been used to moderate the reaction.

These findings were puzzling because it is not possible for natural uranium to go critical, except under very special circumstances such as the presence of graphite or heavy water as a moderator, neither of which could reasonably be expected to have been present in the vicinity of Oklo.

In his book Secrets of the Lost Races, author Rene Noorbergen says: "Following the publication of Dr. Perrin's report by the French Academy of Sciences, however, questions concerning his conclusions were raised by many experts. Glenn T. Seaborg, former head of the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Nobel prize winner for his work in the synthesis of heavy elements, pointed out that for uranium to "burn" in a reaction, conditions must be exactly right. This water must be extremely pure. Even a few parts per million of any contaminant will "poison" the reaction, bringing it to a halt. The problem is that no water that pure exists naturally anywhere in the world!"

Another objection to the theory of a naturally formed nuclear reactor is because several researchers noted that there is no time in history at the site where the uranium ore would be rich enough in uranium 235 for a reaction to take place naturally. But because a reaction did take place, that means the uranium was far richer than what could have formed naturally. Also what’s surprising is that for a massive nuclear reactor like this the impact on the environment around it should have been devastation but instead it was only limited to around 130 feet on all sides and the nuclear waste was held in place because of the geological shape of the site. Which again may have all occurred naturally but to many researchers, this seems more like it was designed.

So was this ancient reactor just a natural marvel as many publications claim or could it have been constructed by a bygone civilization millions of years ago. Let us know your thoughts.

Sources/Sources

Russia Confirms Spike in Radioactivity in the Urals

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Tuesday confirmed reports of a spike in radioactivity in the air over the Ural Mountains while the suspected culprit, a nuclear fuel processing plant, denied it was the source of contamination.

The Russian Meteorological Service said in a statement Tuesday that it recorded the release of Ruthenium-106 in the southern Urals in late September and classified it as "extremely high contamination." Russian authorities insisted, however, that the amount of Ruthenium posed no health risks.

France's nuclear safety agency earlier this month said that it recorded radioactivity in the area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains from a suspected accident involving nuclear fuel or the production of radioactive material. It said the release of the isotope Ruthenium-106 posed no health or environmental risks to European countries.

Last month, when reports of a trace of Ruthenium over Europe first appeared, Russia's state-controlled Rosatom corporation denied any leak. Rosatom reaffirmed Tuesday that the Ruthenium emission registered by the state meteorological service hadn't come from any of its facilities.

Rosatom said it's committed to the highest standards of transparency and is working closely with international organizations to identify the potential source of the emission.

The Russian meteorological office's report, however, noted high levels of radiation in residential areas adjacent to Rosatom's Mayak plant for spent nuclear fuel. Air samples in the town of Argayash in late September-early October, for example, showed levels nearly 1,000 times higher than those recorded in the previous months.

The Russian Natural Resources Ministry which oversees the meteorological office in a statement later on Tuesday sought to reassure the public, claiming that the radiation levels there still were lower than those deemed to be dangerous.

Mayak in a statement on Tuesday denied being the source of contamination. The plant said it has not conducted any work on extracting Ruthenium-106 from spent nuclear fuel "for many years."

Mayak, in the Chelyabinsk region, saw one of the world's worst nuclear accidents on Sept. 29, 1957, when a waste tank exploded, contaminating 23,000 square kilometers (9,200 square miles) and prompting authorities to evacuate 10,000 residents from neighboring regions.

Some details of the disaster were first released to the public in 1989 as part of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's openness campaign, but the exact scope of its impact on the local population has remained unclear. Environmental activists said the damage has been compounded by other accidents, leaks and the discharge of liquid waste.

In 2004 it was confirmed that waste was being dumped in the local Techa River. Nuclear regulators say that no longer happens, but anti-nuclear activists say it's impossible to tell given the level of state secrecy.

In 2016, Associated Press reporters visited a village downstream from Mayak where doctors have for years recorded rates of chromosomal abnormalities, birth defects and cancers vastly higher than the Russian average. A Geiger counter at the riverbank in the village of Muslyumovo showed measurements 80 to 100 times the level of naturally occurring background radiation.

A decades-long Radiation Research Society study of people living near the Techa River, conducted jointly by Russian and American scientists, has linked radiation particularly to higher rates of cancer of the uterus and esophagus.

The Nuclear Safety Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, which oversees safety standards for the country's nuclear industry, has insisted that Mayak's nuclear waste processing system presents no danger to the surrounding population.

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said in a statement on Tuesday that it would petition the Russian Prosecutor General's office to investigate "a possible concealment of a radiation accident" and check whether public health was sufficiently protected.

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Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.