Radiation release near Severodvinsk

[stamasd]

I was wondering if there are fellow gamma spectroscopists in a geographical position to take any environmental readings of radiation supposedly released in the recent Russian military accident near Severodvinsk. Might be educational to see what isotopes are involved.

[Sesselmann]

I too heard it on the news this morning, it seems like the location is extremely remote. It's unfortunate that Radu Motisan doesn't have any monitoring units around that area, else it might have shown up..

https://www.uradmonitor.com

Steven

[gwgw]

This Russian source (not sure how credible it is) mentions that large amount of Technetium has been released due to the explosion: http://avia.pro/news/v-ssha-zayavili-o- ... urevestnik

[stamasd]

If it's technetium that would point towards a uranium-based device, i.e. a reactor, rather than a plutonium device i.e. a warhead.

[gwgw]

Well, there is that quote from the article:

Ранее специалисты заключили, что в результате неустановленного взрыва в воздух был произведён выброс большого количества радиоактивного технеция, который вполне может указывать на тот факт, что речь идёт действительно об испытаниях гиперзвуковой ракеты с ядерной силовой установкой.
Подробнее на: http://avia.pro/news/v-ssha-zayavili-o- ... urevestnik

My Russian is not good at all, I've studied it for couple of years when in school, that was the pre-1989 socialist era. And despite speaking a Slavic language, Russian is not that similar at all. But from what I can understand, they say "...the large amount of Technetium may undoubtedly point (to the fact) that indeed that was a failed test of a hypersonic missile with nuclear propulsion.

I don't know what's meant by "nuclear propulsion". Google translate will translate it as a "power plant" but that is very wrong, it is more like "propulsion" or "driving mechansm". That's rather confusing. I don't even think the source is credible BTW, but that's the only one I could find where they were mentioning anything about what kind of isotopes were detected in the environment.

[sgt_bear]

Nuclear propulsion is a rocket driven by nuclear power:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_propulsion

Putin announced such a missile last year, so it might be possible they were testing a nuclear powered missile

[stamasd]

Essentially a small reactor used to generate heat and cause a gaseous or liquid propellant to expand and generate thrust.

[gwgw]

Reactor as in a real fission process reactor or more like a RTG source?

[stamasd]

That's where the isotope analysis would help. :)

[Go-Figure]

This is the press release with the levels of radiation recorded from the meteo station.
http://www.meteorf.ru/product/infomater ... ls%2F91%2F
You can use an automatic translator.
1.78 μSv/h which half an hour later were reduced to 0.44 and two hours later were down to 0.16.