radioactive

In 1953 Hollywood filmed a blockbuster in front of US nuclear tests. It was the most radioactive movie in history, literally

by

Year 1953, during a nuclear test in the Nevada desert, several Las Vegas hotels offered their guests privileged views of the mushroom cloud at dawn as if it were a tourist attraction at Disneyland, with cocktails included and terraces full of spectators. The scene, which is difficult to imagine today, reflected the extent to which certain risks were perceived very differently in the midst of the nuclear age. Filming in the Cold War. In the mid-50s, The Conqueror It was born as a historical blockbuster that from the beginning involved decisions that were difficult to justify, such as choosing John Wayne to play Genghis Khan himself under the production of Howard Hughes. Filming moved to locations in Utah, an area that offered spectacular landscapes but was, at the time, close to areas where the United States was filming atmospheric nuclear tests. The context was not a secret, but its risks were not fully understood either, since public and scientific perception of radiation was much more limited than today. That combination of cinematic ambition and geopolitical moment left a scenario that, seen with perspective, is much more disturbing than what it seemed like then. The real environment. This perfectly documented that nuclear testing in the Nevada desert generated radioactive fallout that moved to populated areas, subsequently affecting known communities as “downwinders”. It is also proven that the filming team worked in one of those regions, and that part of the surrounding material was transferred to other sets, potentially expanding exposure. This context is neither a theory nor a subsequent reconstruction, but a historical fact recognized by investigations and official organizations that have studied the consequences of those tests. The passage of time and the uncomfortable statistics. What happened? That, over the years, a significant part of the cast and production team developed cancerincluding figures such as John Wayne himself (who died of the disease in 1979), Susan Hayward and Dick Powell. The most cited figure that gives an idea of ​​the possible impact speaks of more than 90 cases among about 220 people linked to the production, a fact that has fueled the fame of the filming as one of the most disturbing and cursed in the history of Hollywood. Even so, we must remember that this number comes from of informative accounts and not from controlled epidemiological studies, which requires treating it with some caution despite its impact. What is proven and what is not. The line between facts and story is key in history. It’s proven that there was exposure to a potentially contaminated environment and that several team members developed serious illnesses over time. What is not proven is a direct causal relationship between filming and these cancers, since factors such as personal habits (including smoking) and the lack of comparable clinical data, facts or causalities may enter, making any definitive conclusion difficult. Therefore, the case remains an ambiguous terrain: perfectly plausible in its approach, but not scientifically confirmed. From failure to modern myth. Upon its release, the film was received quite coldly and criticalremaining in the popular imagination as another failure within the industry. However, as the decades passed, his memory has changed completely, transforming into a story that combines Hollywood, Cold War and invisible risk. What at the time was simply a bad creative and logistical decision ended up being reinterpreted as an episode from the world of celluloid. loaded with symbolism about the limits of knowledge and (i)responsibility. The context changes everything. Because the story of The Conqueror lies not only in what happened during filming, but in how that same filming fits within an era in which exposure to nuclear risks formed part of the everyday landscape. There is no doubt, what seemed acceptable then is today perceived as true nonsense, and this radical change of perspective is what turns the case into something more than a movie anecdote. It wasn’t just a problematic shoot, but an example of how seemingly normal decisions can take on a completely different meaning. with the passage of time. Image | RKO In Xataka | The day a man dared to go further than anyone else: a real fight with Bruce Lee where there were no limits In Xataka | One of the most iconic scenes from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ had an infallible trick: the pain you saw in the scene was not fiction

We have been searching for radioactive “monsters” for decades. What we have found is a rapid evolution

by

When we think about animals and radiation, our minds may imagine a three-eyed fish from The Simpsons or gigantic beasts from science fiction movies. But the reality is that those areas of the planet that have suffered a radioactive disasterpresent a much more complex and often more fascinating reality from an evolutionary point of view. The data. Decades after the accidents Chernobyl in 1986, Fukushima in 2011 and the historic disasters in Mayak, science has begun to collect enough data to understand what occurs when the fauna returns “exclusion zones” that have been abandoned by humans. The most recent studies tell us that there are no monsters, but there are accelerated genetic changes, forced adaptations and physiological scars. The Chernobyl case. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has become an involuntary nature reserve, since, without humans, fauna has proliferated, but genetic studies tell a story of invisible stress. One of the most classic and revealing studies focuses on the barn swallow, Since far from being immune, these birds have acted as bioindicators of the disaster. Research has documented an unusually high frequency of partial albinism in its plumagean external sign of genetic instability. In this case, an increase in the germline mutation rate of between 2 and 10 times has been recorded compared to control areas in Italy or uncontaminated rural Ukraine. As a consequence, between 1991 and 2006, were documented high frequencies of physical abnormalities in adults, suggesting that radiation continues to exert a constant selective pressure. The case of the dogs. In Chernobyl, perhaps the most surprising discovery in recent years comes from the descendants of pets that were abandoned during the evacuation. A genomic analysis A recent study of feral dogs living near the nuclear power plant shows a different genetic structure from dogs living in the city of Chernobyl, just a few kilometers away. In this case, scientists have identified changes in candidate genes such as XRCC4, essential for DNA repair. This suggests a multigenerational selection where the dogs with the best mechanisms to repair cellular damage caused by radiation are those that have managed to survive and reproduce. In this case, a meta-analysis covering 45 studies and 30 species confirms that the effect on mutation rates is large and persistent, being curiously stronger in plants than in animals. The case of Fukushima. If we go to Japan, it is where we find one of the most recent nuclear disasters and it is where we have been allowed to observe the immediate impact and the medium-term adaptation of nature. One of the most notable points is found in a new study published in January of this same year, which tells how thousands of domestic pigs escaped from their abandoned farms and began to mate with wild boars in the forest. Here it is pointed out that this encounter not only produced hybrids between pigs and wild boars, but also has accelerated the biology of these animals. And we are not facing “radioactive mutants” like the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons, but rather something biologically more interesting: a accelerated play machine that has managed to dilute its domestic genes in record time. How it looked. The researchers analyzed the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from the mother, and also the nuclear DNA of 191 wild boars and 10 pigs in the area between 2015 and 2018. The results suggested that, although the hybrids look like wild boars, many hide a secret in their maternal lineage. The key to this is the biological difference between both species, since, although the wild boar has a strict annual breeding season, domestic pigs have a continuous reproductive cycle to breed all year round. From here, it has been seen that hybrids that descend from a mother pig They inherit this rapid reproductive cycle, which has caused a rapid generational rotation, detecting more than five generations of hybrids in just a few years after the disaster. In short, wild boars have seen their reproduction accelerate when a few years ago it was much slower. A genetic paradox. Here comes the most curious part of the study, since if these animals reproduce so much, why don’t we see pigs everywhere in Fukushima? The answer is in the massive backcrossing in the field genetic. And the population of wild boars in the area is immensely higher than that of pigs escaped from farms, so hybrids almost always end up mating with pure wild boars. In this way, if hybrid mothers have many offspring thanks to their domestic “engine” and those offspring are crossed again with wild boars, the result is that the pig’s nuclear DNA, which defines appearance and most traits, is quickly diluted. An evolutionary improvement. With this dilution, the study indicates that, although the mitochondrial DNA reveals the domestic origin of these new wild boars, the nuclear genome and its appearance are almost indistinguishable from that of a wild boar. This is why they are, for all practical purposes, reproductively “improved” wild boars that have erased their visual domestic pig trace. The case of the butterfly. If we continue in Fukushima, we find ourselves another interesting case in the butterfly pale grass blue which was monitored between 2011 and 2013. In this case, a reduction in the size of the butterfly’s wings and a delay in growth was observed, which was combined with the appearance of deformities in the eyes and wings. After the initial spike of anomalies, the population appeared to stabilize, but this suggests a “purge” process: the most sensitive individuals died quickly, leaving a more resilient surviving population, an example of accelerated evolutionary adaptation. The Mayak disaster. Although few people know it, before Chernobyl there was this disaster that received very little media attention and which had protagonist to the Techa River in the Urals (Russia). Here, between 1949 and 1952, waste was dumped, creating a historical laboratory for chronic exposure. Technical reports and dose modeling in aquatic organisms such as fish in the Obi-Techa river system remind us … Read more

We have been searching for the origin of life in hot puddles for years. Bennu has shown that radioactive ice works just as well

by

When the capsule OSIRIS-REx mission landed in the Utah desert in September 2023, NASA knew it had a treasure on its hands. We are talking about a bit of black dust that was collected millions of kilometers from Earth and that was about to rewrite one of the most important chapters of science: the origin of life. What we knew. Until now, the predominant theory regarding the origin of life told us that for “cook” all the basic components of life, such as amino acids, heat and liquid water were needed to make a kind of hot chemical soup. However, science has just flipped the script: the bricks of life They are not only formed in heatbut they can be born in the most extreme cold and under gamma radiation. And that completely changes our understanding of how we got here, and also of the possible presence of life in any corner of the Universe. The importance of Bennu. Definitely is the protagonist of this whole story, and it is nothing more than an asteroid of about 500 meters in diameter which functions as a fossil from the early solar system. But the most interesting thing is that it is approximately 4.6 billion years old, the same age as the Earth, although, unlike our planet, its surface has not melted or been drastically altered by geological processes throughout its ‘life’. And little by little we are learning more about this asteroid thanks to the samples brought by OSIRIS-REx that had already been confirmed in preliminary analyzes an unusual abundance of carbon, nitrogen, water and organic compounds. But what the team led by Penn State University has now found goes one step further. The surprise. This same team, when analyzing the isotopic composition of the amino acids present, especially glycine, came across a chemical signature that did not fit with the classical theory of formation in hot water. A radioactive freezer. Until now, we thought that amino acids in asteroids were formed primarily through aqueous alteration processes: ice melts from heat, liquid water interacts with rock, and voilacomplex organic chemistry. However, science now suggests that liquid water is not necessary for amino acids, an essential molecule of life, to form. Simply from simple ice they can arise without much problem. And there are many of these in the universe. The catalyst. The other important factor in this formation was the energywhich in this case came from gamma radiation emitted by radioactive elements that were abundant in the early solar system. And the energy could not come from thermal heat, since this process occurs in icy environments, long before the asteroid was compacted or heated enough to have liquid water. This explains why we found amino acids both in asteroids that underwent a lot of water heating and in those that remained “drier” and colder. Life, it seems, is more stubborn than we thought and can begin to develop in the most hostile conditions of the vacuum of space. An increasingly complex menu. But we are not just talking about simple molecules, since analyzes of Bennu samples have identified a variety of compounds. Among these is tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid, much more structurally complex, and vital for terrestrial life. Besides, DNA and RNA components have been detectedin addition to ammonia and amines, surpassing in richness many samples of famous meteorites such as that of Murchison. Backlash to Panspermia. If amino acids can easily form in irradiated ice grains in the solar nebula—before the planets even formed—it means that these “ingredients” are spread throughout the solar system. The fact that Bennu, a B-type carbonaceous asteroid, is packed with these compounds reinforces the idea that Earth didn’t have to produce all the components of life itself. A constant shower of asteroids and meteorites during the late intense bombardment could having “sown” our planet with a pre-made deep space biological starter kit. That is why in the end looking at a grain of Bennu dust is looking at ourselves. Or, at least, to the chemical great-great-grandparents who made us here today. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | NASA has just announced that this large asteroid has a 1% chance of impacting Earth. That’s not normal

the most radioactive point in Chernobyl

by

Under reactor 4 of the infamous Chernobyl plant horror is hidden. A huge mass of corium, a kind of already solidified radioactive lava, known as “elephant foot” because of its wrinkled shape. For years it has been known as the most radioactive point in Chernobyland therefore one of the most dangerous in the world. It turns out that there is another one even worse, its name is “The China Syndrome.” The chorio did not stop at the elephant’s foot First of all, let’s see what corio is. The Spanish Nuclear Society defines it as a “mass, melted or solidified, formed by nuclear fuel, structural or control materials and reaction products thereof, which is produced by the total or partial meltdown of the core of a reactor, as a consequence of an accident with loss of cooling.” While still burning, the Chernobyl chorium reached temperatures of 2,600 degrees, more than twice as much as volcanic lava which is usually between 850 and 1,200 degrees. After the accident, corium accumulated in room 305/2, which is located just below reactor 4. From here, some flowed to the east, which is where the famous “elephant’s foot” is located. This formation was discovered in 1986, about eight months after the accident, and the radiation it emitted at that time was 10,000 roentgens per hour. To put it in context, according to the United States nuclear commissionbetween 400 and 500 roentgen per hour are lethal for 50% of the population. The radiation of the elephant’s foot has decreased radically over the years. There is no data on current radiation, but in 1996 the radiation specialist Artur Korneyev took a selfie with her and he survived that exhibition for a long time, finally dying in 2022 at the age of 73. The corium is the red mass seen at the bottom. Image: Shredmash But the chorio did not stop there, it continued descending and went through the ground of this room. He continued to advance through the cooling piping system and came out through the steam ducts. This enormous mass is what among some Chernobyl fans It is known as “The China Syndrome”. China Syndrome It is a huge chorio mass that extends through the corridors of the steam distribution system. According to a fan who posted the story on Redditin 1997 the most radioactive part of this mass emitted 3,460 roentgens per hour, while the elephant’s foot emitted only about 700 roentgens at that time. We have not found data about current measurements, but we have references that indicate that the mass is much larger than the so-called elephant’s foot. The Reddit user ppitm He was the first to call this mass of corium this way and the name has become popular since then. But why that name? It is a concept that was coined by William K. Ergena German theoretical physicist and later popularized by Ralph Lapp, a physicist participating in the Manhattan Project, who mentioned it in an article about nuclear plumbing. ‘The China Syndrome’ It is a hyperbolic idea, as a warning, about what could happen if a nuclear reactor melts down and the resulting material ends up burning the concrete that contains it. The name comes from the idea (obviously exaggerated) that this mass could continue advancing for years, cross the Earth and end up in China. To better understand this exaggeration, it must be taken into account that Ergen’s report was published in 1967, when no fusion accident had yet occurred in a reactor. His prediction was that, in the worst case, a high-temperature mass would form that would sink into the earth and increase in size for approximately two years, potentially reaching 30 meters in diameter and that would persist for a decade. Thank goodness he was wrong. Cover image | Chernobyl ChernobylFacebook In Xataka | We already have the world’s first fast neutron nuclear reactor. We are going to use it for AI data centers

In 1962, a Mexican child found a radioactive pill and took her home. All the father died but

by

27 years before Chernobyl disasterMexico City lived in its meats the effects of ionizing radiation. With a clear parallelism with the death of Marie Curie About 30 years before, a Mexican family disappeared after being exposed for days to a radioactive capsule that they found out there. And the worst thing is that he never clarified as something so dangerous ended in that house. The case. In March 1962, a family composed of five members (father, pregnant mother, paternal grandmother, a daughter and a son) moved to a new house in Mexico City. It is estimated that, playing in a garden, the child found a ‘capsule’ and took it. With about ten years, I was unable to know what it was, but the capsule is not that it had an easily recognizable badge. The cell. They did not know that this small cobalt-60 capsule of just a few centimeters had an activity of 200 gigabequerelios (GBQ). To put it in context, it is a radiation between hundreds and thousands of millions smaller than the one in Chernobilbut enough to wreak havoc without proper protection. And, of course, the manipulation was far from being correct. Like Marie Curie 30 years before with her radioactive tubes, the little one took the capsule for a few days Cobalt-60 In the pants pocket, absorbing more than directly the ionizing radiation. The mother took her and kept her in a kitchen drawer. Now We still have problems with radiation in Chernobyl And they are built great sarcophagi to contain itso a wooden drawer had little to do. The piece Tragic outcome. A few days later, the mother began to notice that glass vessels began to change color. It is a phenomenon called radiation solarization which occurs when transparent materials such as glass are subjected to high energy radiation (such as X -rays or gamma). Depending on the color of the glass and its composition, the new hue varies, but the effects are patent. It also began to cause mysterious symptoms in different family members, such as tiredness at the beginning and vomiting. He outcome It was expected. At the beginning of April, a few days after the finding of the radioactive pill, the child died. It was the one that received the biggest doses, which caused great damage to the bone marrow, infections and necrosis in the areas of maximum exposure. The mother, who was the one who spent the longest in the kitchen, died in July due to hemorrhages in hematopoietic tissues. The two -year -old younger sister died in August after developing respiratory infection, anemia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. The grandmother was the last one: in October of that year and for causes similar to those of the girl. The father received a high dose, but as time was spent at home for work, he survived. A plane of the house, about 25 m². The location of the pill in the kitchen is marked with the “radiation” symbol Explanations? In just eight months, that little radioactive battery ended five family members and here the most interesting question is how something like that, especially when there was already knowledge of the danger of the radioactive material, ended without protection in the garden of a house. The most serious thing is that 60 years have passed and there is no official version. The capsule, after being obsolete, was removed from a hospital where it was used in radiology equipment and was not transported with the necessary protection measures. There begin the versions that point that he arrived at a landfill next to other waste, but without signaling about the danger it represented and, in some way, ended in that garden. A Report Medical of the 1964 pointed out that the piece was in a lead container that was granted to the family for their care, but without informing its content or danger. The only clear thing is that he left the hospital without proper surveillance and the head of that cobalt capsule was not found. Was not the only one. That mystery has given rise to conspiracy theories such as ensuring that it was a premeditated event that ended in that family, but they are still that: theories. And, although it would have been a perfect story for some film with supernatural component (mysterious deaths, change of color in objects), nothing was done with it. Nor are there great documentaries, contrary to what happened with another radiation case with a cobalt capsule-60: that of Ciudad Juárez in 1984. The protagonist was another radiotherapy unit with Cobalt-60, but on this occasion, an improperly dismantled. Destined to the garbage dump, when the operators pierced the unit with cobalt-60, the particles were shot, contaminating thousands of tons of metal destined to create construction pieces and metal bases for tables. During the next months, hundreds of houses were built that had to be demolished, and tons of contaminated metals that had been distributed throughout Mexico and the southern United States were also recovered. It is estimated that some 4,000 people were exposed, without catastrophic consequences, but leaving a valuable lesson about the risk of recycling obsolete medical machinery. Images | IAEA, V1ADIS1AV In Xataka | The place where the US created atomic bombs has a problem. Plutonium has shot at the Chernobil level

When the US began to investigate a nuclear waste tank he found an even worse nightmare: radioactive wasps

by

If you are even the noses of the velutinasthe Backpacks and the Tigres mosquitoes and Japanesethink about this: there are people in South Carolina (USA) that what fears right now is the stalking of radioactive wasps. It sounds crazy, but it makes all the meaning of the world if one takes into account that there, near a plant in which in its day pieces for nuclear bombs were manufactured, They just found A loop with a radiation level ten times above what is allowed. The big question is … how is it possible? What happened? That a few days ago the US Department of Energy published A report which has generated Polvareda in the country’s media. And rightly. The document does not go demand and supply, renewable or prices, but of something much more picturesque: earlier than the month, on Thursday 3 to be precise, some operators located near Aikenin South Carolina, a wasps nest with a radiation level ten times higher to what federal regulations allow. The authorities insist In any case where there is no risk. Where did they find it? Near a radioactive waste tank Savannah River Sitea nuclear material processing center located in South Carolina, next to the Savannah River, and that rose to mid -last century to refine useful materials for weapons creation. The NBC chain states that in its day, at the beginning of the cold war, it was used to manufacture the plutonium nuclei necessary to mount nuclear pumps. Now the installation is dedicated to other works, such as fuel production for nuclear centrals and cleaning tasks, but some sources They point that has generated More than 625 million Of liters of nuclear waste, an amount more than considerable that, once processed, it stayed at around 129 million. 43 underground tanks remain in use. OTHER EIGHT ARE CLOSED. What did they do with the nest? They sprayed him with insecticide, they removed him and discarded him as a radioactive residue. Finally the team prepared A reporta document that took more than expected because its authors dedicated themselves to review Previous cases of fauna pollution to be sure of your criteria. The document concludes that “more actions on the land” are necessary. Is anything else known? Yes. To begin with that they only found the loop, No wasps. Aiken Standard Clarify In any case that if insects had been located, they would probably present quite lower pollution levels. The same newspaper indicates that, after detecting the nest, the radiological control operating staff (RCO) inspected the surroundings without identifying more pollution or threats to the workers. The area in which the nest appeared is inside the plant, where underground steel tanks and several meters deep are preserved. The CNN chain collect Savannah River Mission Completion statements that rule out that there is a risk that the wasps created by the loop can fly outside their facilities. The reason: the normal thing is that they do not move too far from their nests. How is it possible? That is the million dollar question. The report speaks of “inherited radioactive pollution” and “not related to a loss of control”. The event would therefore be explained by the residual radioactivity That remained when the center was fully operational, not for possible leaks. The text in any case does not seem to have satisfied the Savannah River Site Watch surveillance team, which considers that it is incomplete because it does not detail where pollution came from or how exactly came to insects. “I am furious because SRS did not explain where radioactive waste comes from or if there is any type of escape in the tanks that the public must know,” Recognize Tom Clementsgroup manager. One of the keys would be the type of nest, since not all wasps use the same materials to create their homes. Images | ILJA NEDILKO (UNSPLASH), Flo (Unspash) and Duncan Sánchez (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | Madrid suffered a rocambolesco nuclear accident in 1970. So the authorities began to collect vegetables

We had been asking us for years why Chernobyl wild boar were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

by

Almost four decades after the accident of the nuclear power plant located in Prypiat, Chernobil animals They continue generating fascination. These survivors in one of the most polluted regions in Europe They surprise us In many ways, but there is an enigmatic species in this place is that of wild boar. One of the most radioactive species of Chernobil. Solving the mystery. Have A new trackrevealed by a team of researchers, about these animals: we finally know why their radioactivity is greater than that of other species. The answer does not have so much to do with the nuclear accident in itself but with something that happened quite before. More radioactive? It is very little that we still know about Chernobil animals. One of the most curious enigmas was that of wild boars. To understand why we have to talk about one of the most polluting radioactive isotopes, the Cesio 137 (CS137). The semi -dear period of this isotope (the time in which half of the atoms we have of the material will have disintegrated) is just over 30 years. The concentration of cesium in the trophic chain should in principle even reduce to a greater extent since atoms tend to leak on the ground or be dragged by the water to the rivers. Going down. That is why the level of radioactivity in animals such as deer or roams has descended significantly in the area. Not only this situation has not occurred in the towns of Jabalís: its radiation levels have remained almost constant, that is, the descent is not even in line with which the semi -detail of the CS137 would imply. Is the “wild boar paradox” Nuclear tests and radioactive truffles. The response starts from Cesium 135. The team that resolved this mystery managed to focus not on radiation levels but in its origin. They found that it was this other Isotope of Cesium who was behind this phenomenon. The CS135 has a much longer half -grooming period, which explains why the reduction had been lower. This also makes it harder to detect the presence of CS135. As Explain the responsible team From the study, each type of nuclear incident has its own “signature”. It is estimated that 90% of CS137 present in Europe was released by the Chernobil accident, but this is not the case of CS135. The origin of this is 68% in the nuclear tests developed in the context of the Fíra war. The fair depth. The feeding of wild boars has also been one of the key factors when it comes to understanding the reason for their radiation levels. These animals feed on a type of truffle (Elaphomyces) that grows in the subsoil, at depths of between 20 and 40 centimeters. As we indicated before, part of the Radioactive Cesium He leaked year after year on the floor of the area. At the rate of a few millimeters a year, the Cesium (both the one from the nuclear tests and the accident) has been advancing towards these depths, contaminating these fungi, food source of the wild boars. From Chernobil to Bavaria. The study that clarified this mystery was carried out by analyzing a population of 48 wild boar in the state of Bavariasouth of Germany. The Analysis details They were published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology. In the long term. The study results invite us to think that the situation will not change in the short term. That is, it is unlikely that the levels of radioactivity of wild boars begin to descend in the coming years until they are equal to those presented by other similar animals such as deer or roeans. The greatest radiation present in these animals has made the hunters resist their capture. This implies that the populations of these wild boars will go increasing. Perhaps their expansion through central Europe makes the radiation levels of these animals decline generation after generation but, from what we have seen, this process could still be extended for decades. In Xataka | Birds, wild boars and even a prehistoric clam: these are some of the species that returned from extinction In Xataka | Some Spanish scientists are recreating the cranobil accident in Seville. Objective: See how it affects biodiversity Image | Joachim Reddemann / Кирил урин *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

200,000 abandoned radioactive barrels are sought off the coast of Galicia: we have only found 1,000

by

The Atlantic Ocean is one of the world’s largest nuclear cemeteries. It is estimated that more than 200,000 barrels with nuclear waste sent to the seabed rest Between 1946 and 1990. The mission to recover them is already underway. First days of work. The French oceanographic ship L’Tarante has begun to work in the search for abandoned drums in Atlantic waters. It arrives with the work of locating some of these barrels and evaluating whether they have caused some kind of impact on marine ecosystems in the area. The team has enforced their work since the first day. According to The local press reportsthe researchers managed to identify the first 1,000 drums and map their location. They have not yet transcended the first images of these barrels. The mission, called Nodssum-I, has an expected duration of one month. The ship arrived a week ago in the area where it will perform its work, located in international waters about 650 kilometers northwest of the coast of Galicia. It is estimated that the more than 200,000 barrels distributed throughout the exploration area are found between 3,000 and 5,000 meters. 200,000 drums. According to Explain the responsible team From the project, barrels contain nuclear residues of low or medium radioactivity. These include sludge, contaminated metal parts, cation exchange resins and even office equipment. In order to resist the high pressures of the ocean fund, these materials would have been encapsulated in bitumen or cement, Add the American Society American. Throughout the years that these waste has passed underwater, their radioactivity would have fallen significantly, it is added from the project. However, some long -term elements could still maintain a good part of this radioactivity. In addition to identifying and locating these barrels, the mission will take photographs of these in order to evaluate their status and integrity. For now the plans do not include the possibility of recovering these barrels. Evaluating the impact. Locating and studying drums is just one of the objectives of the mission. The team will collect water samples, sediments and even marine life to study the presence of radioactive or radiosiopo isotopes in them. Thus they also intend to study the interactions between marine ecosystems and these radioisotypes; Also understand the transport of these atoms in the seabed through processes such as erosion and sedimentation, and also through marine currents. Uly X. For this work the team will feature the instruments aboard L’Anchantante, including a 4.5 meter autonomous submarine called Uly X. This vehicle will allow researchers to photograph and study closely the lost drums in Atlantic waters. Nodssum-i and nodssum-II. The mission of one month of L’Atalante will be only the first part in a project that will encompass two trips to the search area, Nodssum-I and Nodssum-II. For now, Nodssum-II is in the planning phase, but we know of it that it will be a monitoring mission that will take detailed samples thanks to a submarine remotely operated like the Victor ROV, or a minisubmarine like the Nautile. In Xataka | Japan’s energy gauge: after trying to become independent from its nuclear, it has had to back down Image | French oceanographic fleet / Navire Océanographique L’Tarante

Between 1946 and 1990, Europe sank 200,000 radioactive barrels in the Atlantic Ocean. France prepares to recover them

by

France will undertake this month of June a mission to map and study the state of the more than 200,000 drums with radioactive material that several European countries sank at the bottom of the sea. The objective: evaluate their environmental impact and study if it is viable to recover them. A practice today unthinkable. For more than four decades, between 1946 and 1990, the norm for several European countries was to pour radioactive waste of very low activity in the oceanic depths. More than 200,000 barrels loaded with gloves, laboratory materials and nuclear samples were sunk in the northeast Atlantic abyssal plains, more than 4,000 meters under the surface of the oceanan internationally prohibited custom by the 1993 London Convention. Better late than never. Although a good part of the radioactivity has disappeared thanks to the short half-life of the CESIO-134 or iron-55 isotopes, so far there has been no state-level effort to recover them. The National Center for Scientific Research in France (CNRS) will be launched at the middle of June With the nodssum missionwhich does not have as its immediate objective the recovery of the 200,000 barrels (a task of titanic proportions), but an exhaustive analysis of the containers, the behavior of the radionuces in the deep ocean and their interaction with the marine ecosystems to make a decision on which one to recover and how to recover them. A robot submarine and fishing networks. The Nodssum project will take place in two major campaigns. The first phase will be a recognition mission that will sail on June 15 and will run until July 11. The protagonist will be the ULYX Submarine Autonomous Robot of the French oceanographic fleet, capable of descending up to 6,000 meters. In its first scientific dives, Ulyx will navigate about 70 meters above the seabed to map with a high resolution Sónar the main discharge zone and identify the location of barrels. Then, it will approach up to 10 meters to photograph them. This phase also includes the initial shot of water samples, sediments and fauna, but without approaching the drums. Scientists will use nasas to capture fish and crustaceans with which to determine the effect of waste on marine life. The barrels will not move until 2026. Taking advantage of the data collected in the first phase, the second mission will use a robot with remotely operated arms, Victor or Nautile, to directly observe the barrels and take samples around it for a more detailed analysis. These data will be those used to determine if necessary, and feasible, selective recovery operations in the future. Security will be the axis of the entire project, which includes a robust radioprotection protocol supervised by the France Nuclear Safety Agency. In addition to amending past errors, the mission will be a unique opportunity to measure the long -term consequences of storing at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of thousands of radioactive waste. Image | CNRS, Greenpeace (1978) In Xataka | Thus, radioactive waste is “buried”: how are nuclear cemeteries inside

We are injecting radioactive material into live rhino horns so that we stop consuming them

by

Perhaps you did not know, but to protect us from human nature itself, that capable of generating the most absolute chaos, most of the main airports and ports, including those of South Africa, already have the infrastructure necessary to detect radioactive material. So that? To detect nuclear weapons. Thus, in theory, we avoid smuggling between countries. In a twist, science has just found in this infrastructure a solution for stop poaching. Radioactive horns. The news is as surprising as it is true: a group of South African scientists has been injecting radioactive material directly into the horns of living rhino. The idea: make them easier to detect in border stalls. Behind the project is the Radiation and Physics of Health (RHPU) of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Why the horns. Of course, the enclave where it is happening is not trivial. South Africa houses a Most of the planet’s rhinoceros And, as such, it is a critical point for poaching driven by, and here comes the key, demand from Asia. Yes, there the horns They use in traditional medicine for its supposed therapeutic effect (not tested). As Professor James Larkin explained, who runs the project, “every 20 hours in South Africa a rhinoceros dies from his horn.” In fact, before this amazing script, trying to save the rhino with another unexpected movement: investing in bonds. Not only that. The researchers indicate that the smuggling of these horns has currently made them “the most valuable false product in the black market, with a value even greater than that of gold, platinum, diamonds and cocaine. These horns hunted furtively are trafficked throughout the world and are used for traditional medicines or as status symbols”, They assure. Radioactivity injection process. Under the name Rhisotope Projectresearchers are drilling low doses of radioisotopes in the horns of 20 sedated rhinos whose health will be monitored over the next six months. We talked about two small radioactive chips in the horn zone that are then “finished” by spraying 11,000 microputs in the area. In the long term. If it succeeds, the program could be extended in the long term to include elephants and pangolines, as well as other plants and animals, According to the university. The material, in principle, would last five years on the horn, which “was cheaper than removing it every 18 months.” “Each insertion was closely supervised by expert veterinarians and there was very care to avoid any damage to animals,” Explain Larkin. “During months of research and evidence, we have also ensured that inserted radioisotopes do not involve any risk to health or any other risk for animals or for those who take care of them.” Poison for humans. In essence, once the radioactivity dose is inserted, the consumption by means of the products made with the horns will make them “essentially poisonous for human consumption,” they count at work. Be that as it may, the main objective is none other than identifying the smuggling attempts, to be able to be, before they leave the country. How the alarm jumps. Apparently, this infrastructure found in many airports works more or less simple. Anyone who tries to pass the radioactive horns would sound the alarms and a police response would be activated. By the way, scientists remember that the process is not harmful to animals, since the dose of the radioactive material is so low that it does not affect the animal’s health or the environment in any way. Figures that have led to the situation. Last February, the country’s Ministry of Environment said that, despite the government’s efforts to combat illegal trade, 499 of these giant mammals died in 2023most in state parks. In figures, it represents an increase of 11 percent compared to those of 2022. To get an idea of This sad realitywe talk about figures of up to $ 60,000 per kilo, which explains why the rhinoceros horn remains one of the most lucrative illegal markets. Image | Witts University, Martin Pettitt In Xataka | An area of ​​Mexico has become an out of control: tourists do not stop to swim with wild orcs In Xataka | It never rains to everyone’s taste: we have just discovered that rainfall has wreaked havoc on the Galician octopus *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.