by HPsquared
1 subcomments
- Reader's note: this is Iodine-129 (which is created in nuclear fission and has a very long half-life), NOT iodine-131 which has a half-life of 8 days and is a highly radioactive short-term fission product.
So it's understandable that Iodine-129 could be detected as a result of decades-old testing or other releases.
- This is much less interesting than the headline suggests. 1.5 times background levels, of a single very long-lived isotope, is not much of an increase.
This doesn’t indicate that there has been a recent undisclosed accident or other newsworthy event as you might be imagining.
- > UP MSI said the results were consistent with recent Chinese studies linking iodine-129 in the Yellow Sea to decades-old nuclear weapons tests and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities in Europe, which released the isotope into soils and rivers in northeastern China.
The first part is more or less obvious, but I somehow fail to imagine how nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities in Europe can affect soils and rivers in any part of China (never mind the northeastern part)?
- Source paper
Tracing the origin, transport, and distribution of elevated iodine-129 in seawater from the West Philippine Sea
Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2026 Jan, doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.118916
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41197174/
by nickdothutton
1 subcomments
- You know, over several decades I've come to the conclusion that you will never be able to explain radioactivity, radioactive contamination, background, isotopes, decay, and the relative probabilities, cumulative effects, etc to the general public and have them reach sane conclusions based on understanding. It's easier (I think) to explain time travel, or telepathy, or (insert whatever black-magic you prefer).
- I'm sort of surprised that ecowarriors aren't dropping radio isotopes that are not actually that bad but would cause customer revulsion in places that are overfished.
- Great. So on top of everything else, now we have to worry about Godzilla.
- Godzilla!
- [dead]
- I'm not sure to get. They say took decades for this particular pollution to reach the Philippines via ocean circulation systems but the images suggest it's coming from rivers. Is it possible that china is hiding something?
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