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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday June 28 2020, @02:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the radioactive-cats-have-18-half-lives dept.

yle.fi:

Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) said it has found small amounts of radioactive isotopes of cobalt, ruthenium and caesium in air samples collected in Helsinki between 16 and 17 June. Radiation authorities in Sweden and Norway have reported similar findings.

Pia Vesterbacka, who heads environmental radiation surveillance at STUK, said there was no cause for alarm as the detected radioactive material was too minute to pose any risk.

"The amount of radioactive particles is very small and has no impact on the environment or human health," she explained.

Samples from Finland's seven other radiation monitoring stations have yet to be analysed.
...
"Investigations are still ongoing...at this point we would not want to come out and say the radiation originated in Russia," she said.

Also on Radio Free Europe, pointing to a tweet of Lassina Zerbo, the head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, tweet that shows a map of the possible source region in the 72h preceding detection.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @03:22PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @03:22PM (#1013693)

    Is this [spaceweatherarchive.com]. Right now we're in a pretty serious solar minimum, yet on the 23rd there was some still unexplained major magnetic event throughout Earth.

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by khallow on Sunday June 28 2020, @03:29PM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 28 2020, @03:29PM (#1013697) Journal
      The Sun doesn't generate heavy elements like what's mentioned (cobalt, ruthenium and caesium). That's purely human-sourced, though it could be some natural process like erosion digging up old contaminated soil that's causing the present day jump.
      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:15PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:15PM (#1013717)

        GP's postulation was hinting that nuclear weapons tests (or whatever earthbound 'event') might have impacted the magnetosphere.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:34PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:34PM (#1013720)

          I anticipated a Martian invasion this month, since the #BLM news cycle is getting boring. It's possible that the magnetosphere was affected by the invasion fleet?

          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:00PM

            by RS3 (6367) on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:00PM (#1013821)

            Well, we've sent several mercenary robots to Mars, and left broken junkpiles laying around, so I'd expect a response anytime now.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @04:28PM (#1013719)

      The Russians were doing a warp coil cycle test.

    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday June 29 2020, @03:41PM (1 child)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:41PM (#1014118)

      Interestingly, it is possible to cause large scale effects on the ionosphere using high-altitude nuclear bombs, including "wobbles" in the earth's magnetic field:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime#Aftereffects [wikipedia.org]

      https://glasstone.blogspot.com/2006/03/emp-radiation-from-nuclear-space.html [blogspot.com]

      figure:
      https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8adFNycaanI/SfUeagMtQ4I/AAAAAAAAAl8/KWm7TPH_TkI/s1600/Starfish+mass+asymmetries+from+device+and+missile.JPG [blogspot.com]

      Looking at the spaceweather post in the parent, I notice that magnetic anomaly was stronger in Baltic (Abisko and Sodankyla)

      OTOH one would expect that such a feature would have been observed thanks to prompt gammas/etc even were it to happen over, say the arctic.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:18PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:18PM (#1013765)

    I'm not saying it's Russia, but it's Russia.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:25PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:25PM (#1013769)

      They have a long history of meltdowns. One or two larger than Chernobyl.

      Either something shifted in the earths crust and sprayed something out (unlikely), or someone had an accident.

      • (Score: 2) by toddestan on Monday June 29 2020, @01:33AM (2 children)

        by toddestan (4982) on Monday June 29 2020, @01:33AM (#1013924)

        Russia also has dumped many old nuclear reactors at sea, sometimes with fuel and other radioactive material still in them, as well as plenty of other radioactive waste. Another likely possibility is that something has started to leak.

        • (Score: 2) by legont on Monday June 29 2020, @02:50AM

          by legont (4179) on Monday June 29 2020, @02:50AM (#1013959)

          There is a large uranium mine in Estonia with a huge storage of nuclear waste. Estonians first sold it to an American company which went belly up I believe and since then it changed hands a few times. It's right on the shore. Here, this green thing in the middle is basically a slightly covered nuclear waste lake.

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday June 29 2020, @06:53PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 29 2020, @06:53PM (#1014209)

          Another likely possibility is that something has started to leak.

          You can trivially look at the ratios of various short lived to various long lived isotopes to tell how long ago "whatever it was" was fissioning.

          Also fission process itself produces "stuff" and soaking "stuff" in or not in a neutron field results in different isotope ratios. So you can tell roughly how long whatever it was, was up and running (like was it a core run hard for 10 years with little breaks then its a leaky land reactor, or run on and off for twenty years it was a disposed of naval reactor, or if it was something fresh that failed soon after powering up like a bomb)

          Of course plenty of leaky stuff at processing plants also.

          I'd guess the various semi-cooperative military sites know 1000x as much as is being released to the public. Depending on stolen/shared intel I bet the Finnish military knows which site and device is leaking, not just "something". But if you admit that the results match device X in location Y, you're also admitting you somehow obtained the data about site X and location Y which will make the usual spy agencies all wound up.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:53PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:53PM (#1013782)

    Did anyone check whether Finland startup up any 5G networks on June 16 or 17? A technician may have left an endpoint uncapped.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:55PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @06:55PM (#1013784)

      Just look for a spike in COVID-19 4 to 12 days later.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:17PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:17PM (#1013791)

        Found it! [worldometers.info]: on June 15th and 16th, they had only 4 cases/day. Since then, the infection rate has risen again to 14/day (on the 19th) and even 19/day (on the 26th).

        So that's conclusive proof the ITU did it. Right?

        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:04PM (3 children)

          by RS3 (6367) on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:04PM (#1013824)

          As a former co-worker of mine used to say, never underestimate the power of coincidence.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @11:25PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @11:25PM (#1013885)

            Yes but did the police ever believe him?

          • (Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 29 2020, @02:54AM (1 child)

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 29 2020, @02:54AM (#1013960)

            Used to say... was the advent of his silence coincidental with anything interesting?

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
            • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday June 29 2020, @03:08AM

              by RS3 (6367) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:08AM (#1013965)

              I'm powerless to say.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:19PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:19PM (#1013794)

    our athmosphere is amazing.
    all detected elements are heavier then regular air (and even heavier then water) and should sink and not float.
    but somehow, a puff of air grabed the particle with non existant fingers "off the ground" and then either:
    a) kept it aloft, weaving and waving it around obstecles like tree trunks and branches and building, over bodies of water over 100 of kilometers
    -or-
    b) air swooped down, again "grabbed the heavy particle" and then tossed it high into the athmosphere into a parabolic artillery trajectory.

    i wonder how physics explains this "heavier the air transport without own propulsion" and if the same explanation could be used to ...uhm... err... explain the pyramid buildings?

    naw ... nevermind. the fact is inconvinient, let's study neutrinos instead ^_^

    (more srsly, maybe there are micro votices in the athmosphere, with the heavier then air particle in the center, that exist for longer (and unexplained) then assumed possible?)

    • (Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:37PM

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 28 2020, @07:37PM (#1013807) Journal

      Maybe there are Russian nuclear submarines with leaks in the primary coolant circuit.

    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:09PM (4 children)

      by RS3 (6367) on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:09PM (#1013827)

      Centrifugal force. I know I know, there's no such thing- it's a virtualized force. Just bear with me. If the wind makes the particle move, it's moving in an arc- following the curvature of Earth.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 29 2020, @02:58AM (3 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 29 2020, @02:58AM (#1013961)

        Don't feed the trolls... they might get gassy and go airborne.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday June 29 2020, @03:11AM

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:11AM (#1013966)

          It's really cheap entertainment. But I guess it can get old. I'm relatively new to this online thing so I have some catching up to do. (seriously).

          So we need a mod for "trollbait"?

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @08:24AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @08:24AM (#1013998)

          Or ya know, the guy actually believed what he wrote was correct and instead views people calling him a troll as some sort of cognitive dissonance thing. What he said was technically incorrect, but involved a whole heck of a lot more thought than most people put into most topics now a days. This is the sort of place Hanlon's Razor [wikipedia.org] would actually make good sense, and something we should probably consider more often. If people interpreted each other less antagonistically (and simultaneously interpreted corporate or political behaviors *more* antagonistically) the world would be a vastly better place since we'd probably be at a much closer approximation of reality.

          Instead we have all messed up and backwards. We label each other all sorts of nasty things for misunderstandings (or different opinions) while simultaneously apologizing for the worst of corporate or political behavior as non-malicious so long as there is some form of plausible deniability available - which there always will be.

          • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday June 29 2020, @09:26PM

            by RS3 (6367) on Monday June 29 2020, @09:26PM (#1014257)

            IMHO, of course, one of the better posts ever.

            There are serious conspiracy theorists (maybe realists?) who would tell you we're all pawns in a very complex game. A big part of the game is to keep us fighting, including labeling each other "troll" (completely bastardizing the definition of "troll") when we simply disagree or have a different perspective. One of the many ways to appease us is an occasional referendum on the voting ballot. Makes us feel like we're actually deciding something.

            Okay, back to finger paints and basket weaving I go... :)

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:30PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2020, @09:30PM (#1013836)

      Your comment is mind-bogglingly* foolish. Not just the preamble, nor the physics cluelessness, but the "more srsly" part too.

      We don't live in a lowest energy state locale. Some potential energy is in the system - eg. denser things are sometimes above less dense things, some batteries have charges, etc.

      Chew on this: the Sahara (and other deserts!) give off huge clouds of sand - you know, that stuff that's so heavy that it makes up the ground in places like the Sahara - due to wind. One visible-from-space cloud of such debris is in the news right now.

      Macro vortices, not micro, also contribute. Ditching your thoughtless terminology: cyclones and hurricanes can pick up heavy things like frogs, and lift them far enough up that they rain down far away.

      I'd spend more time picking on what you said but it's so stupid as to not be worth the time. Go read a bit before bullshitting on SN please. Or just shut up, period. I find it hard to imagine that you're a domain expert in anything, nor that if you are, that you'd have insight that you'd be able to formulate words to share.

      *Yes, literally. I can't understand how someone could write what you did honestly. So I can only assume you're a troll, here to muddy the discussion with garbage. I definitely wasted 30s trying to figure out wtf you could mean if you were not trolling, and then another - looks like >1m, 2m so far - writing this.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @06:11AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @06:11AM (#1013985)

        You want know something funny about that dust cloud?
        Dust from Northern Africa is the major source of nutrient minerals for the Amazon rainforest canopy. Without occasional Sahara dust storms the Amazon jungle dies.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @08:54AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @08:54AM (#1014001)

        maybe GP was simply drunk or high?

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 29 2020, @01:52AM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 29 2020, @01:52AM (#1013938) Journal

      a puff of air grabed the particle with non existant fingers "off the ground"

      The fingers of air are quite powerful. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and dust storms all routinely pick vast quantities of such things off the ground.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 29 2020, @03:01AM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:01AM (#1013963)

        The fingers of air are quite powerful.

        My favorite is when it rains fish after a waterspout.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday June 29 2020, @03:13AM (1 child)

          by RS3 (6367) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:13AM (#1013967)

          See! I knew you'd admit it: Spinning! Centrifugal force sucked them right up in the air and spun them dry. Harumph.

          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 29 2020, @05:25PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 29 2020, @05:25PM (#1014168)

            The ones that fell on me were still plenty wet...

            Waterspouts / dust devils / tornadoes are really wild things, I believe they're a sort of manifestation of the Bernoulli principle (blowing across the end of a tube creates suction in the tube), but in a much messier 3D volume of compressible gasses in rare dynamic that support the relatively long lived phenomenon - then you can go a bunch of orders of magnitude bigger and get something related in a hurricane.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]
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