Don
Yeah, there's no reason for a jet engine failure to cause a spike in radiation, so clearly a cover up of some sort.
Russian radiation leak
- Thread starter Chris Wilson
- Start date
With that line of thinking, we're sitting on the skin of a gigantic ball of molten rock and iron. What could possibly go wrong.
Russia appears to have 100% of the worlds operational nuclear icebreakers (6) and a container ship which is nuclear.
And then there's the military vessels x lots.
They've been making floating nuclear reactors for decades.
Don
And quite a few of them ended up on the seabed, at least one of which is still there to this day!
Soldato
Man of Honour
Never, ever look at the list of nuclear accidents on Wikipedia. You may find out there was one at the airfield just down the road from you...
And since you didn't know before, it can't have been at all serious.
If you really want to be worried, the things to look for are international incidents with nuclear weapons that came close to starting a nuclear war (there have been a few), lost nuclear weapons which were never recovered (the USA admits to 6, the USSR and its successors admit to nothing but they probably have more than the USA) and failsafes that failed to be safe. Those come in various forms, from launch codes written on the weapons for convenience to weapons arming themselves due to a fault. Imagine this for a fun day out: You get called to an incident in which some nuclear bombs were dropped because of a plane crash. Hey, no worries, they're not armed. It's a failsafe - the nukes can't be armed unless a specific signal is sent. You're just there to inspect them and...bloody hell, they're armed and ready to go bang right now! Yep, that happened. The cause was found to be...a nut that came loose. That's a great failsafe right there. The nukes can't go off...unless any small piece of conductive material shorts two adjacent wires. Totally safe. A thief could hotwire the nukes to make them ready to use. Less secure than an old car.
As for taking iodine as a precaution...am I totally wrong in thinking that would only be of any use as a precaution if the radioactive material you're exposed to is iodine?
It's something to do with temporarily stopping the thyroid gland becoming damaged by the radiation level.But I am too tired to Google it.
Associate
- Joined
- 15 Feb 2015
- Posts
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At Putin's last State of the Nation address he announced that Russia had successfully tested a nuclear powered cruise missile.
Mind you Russia do like to claim quite a lot of stuff
No, you are correct. Taking stable Potassium Iodide only protects the thyroid from uptaking radioactive iodine.
It doesn't protect any other organ or protect from any other form of ionising radiation
Seems there's panic buying of iodine tablets in the region and shipping is banned from the bay around the area... But as others have said, Finland would surely raise the alrm if they were monitoring increased radiation levels.
Russian Arctic panic-buying over rocket accident radiation
There has been panic-buying of medical iodine in Russia's far north, following a brief radiation spike linked to a rocket accident, Russian media report.
Pharmacies' stocks of iodine are reported to be running out in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk.
Iodine can block the thyroid gland's take-up of radioactive iodine, but the pills can also cause medical problems.
Two people died and six were injured in Thursday's accident at a test site. But the military has given few details.
The authorities say radiation levels were higher than normal for about 40 minutes around the Nyonoksa naval test range, but then returned to normal.
The defence ministry said a liquid-fuel rocket engine had exploded, but it did not specify the system involved.
The navy is now keeping all shipping out of nearby Dvina Bay, on the White Sea, for a month. Officials did not explain the temporary closure of the bay.
The village of Nyonoksa is about 47km (29 miles) west of Severodvinsk, which has a population of nearly 200,000. Severodvinsk has a shipyard that builds and repairs nuclear submarines for Russia's Northern Fleet.
A news website for the Arkhangelsk region, 29.ru, said pharmacies' stocks of iodine pills were running out in Arkhangelsk on Thursday evening.
The website also said medics who evacuated the injured at Nyonoksa wore chemical and nuclear protection suits.
There was a rush on iodine stocks during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, which sent a huge plume of radiation across Europe.
It is the second accident involving Russia's military this week.
On Monday, one person was killed and eight others were injured in a blaze at an ammunition dump in Siberia.
Earlier on Thursday there were reports of a fire at a military facility near Nyonoksa. Telegram-based media outlet Mash said radiation levels in the village were three times higher than normal.
The defence ministry insisted that "there have been no harmful chemicals released into the atmosphere, the radiation levels are normal".
Nyonoksa carries out tests for virtually every missile system used by the Russian navy, including sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.
Russian Arctic panic-buying over rocket accident radiation
There has been panic-buying of medical iodine in Russia's far north, following a brief radiation spike linked to a rocket accident, Russian media report.
Pharmacies' stocks of iodine are reported to be running out in the cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk.
Iodine can block the thyroid gland's take-up of radioactive iodine, but the pills can also cause medical problems.
Two people died and six were injured in Thursday's accident at a test site. But the military has given few details.
The authorities say radiation levels were higher than normal for about 40 minutes around the Nyonoksa naval test range, but then returned to normal.
The defence ministry said a liquid-fuel rocket engine had exploded, but it did not specify the system involved.
The navy is now keeping all shipping out of nearby Dvina Bay, on the White Sea, for a month. Officials did not explain the temporary closure of the bay.
The village of Nyonoksa is about 47km (29 miles) west of Severodvinsk, which has a population of nearly 200,000. Severodvinsk has a shipyard that builds and repairs nuclear submarines for Russia's Northern Fleet.
A news website for the Arkhangelsk region, 29.ru, said pharmacies' stocks of iodine pills were running out in Arkhangelsk on Thursday evening.
The website also said medics who evacuated the injured at Nyonoksa wore chemical and nuclear protection suits.
There was a rush on iodine stocks during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, which sent a huge plume of radiation across Europe.
It is the second accident involving Russia's military this week.
On Monday, one person was killed and eight others were injured in a blaze at an ammunition dump in Siberia.
Earlier on Thursday there were reports of a fire at a military facility near Nyonoksa. Telegram-based media outlet Mash said radiation levels in the village were three times higher than normal.
The defence ministry insisted that "there have been no harmful chemicals released into the atmosphere, the radiation levels are normal".
Nyonoksa carries out tests for virtually every missile system used by the Russian navy, including sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.
Man of Honour
That's what I thought, so I'm thinking there are a few possibilities:
1) The iodine advice was never gven and is just a rumour based on a fairly widespread vague association between iodine and radiation.
2) The iodine advice was given by a local official who was winging it and didn't really know what had happened.
3) The iodine advice was given as a sort of reassurance, the intended message being along the lines of "It's not a problem, but do this just in case". People are often reassured if they're given something to do that they think is useful.
4) The iodine advice was given because there really was a significant leak and it might be of some use.