2019/07/26 by Olivier Masson, Georg Steinhäuser, Dorian Zok +66 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Chemistry · Environmental Science · Health Professions · #Radioactive contamination and transfer #Radioactive element chemistry and processing #Radioactivity and Radon Measurements
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1907571116
openalex publication_date 2019/07/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
Significance A massive atmospheric release of radioactive 106 Ru occurred in Eurasia in 2017, which must have been caused by a sizeable, yet undeclared nuclear accident. This work presents the most compelling monitoring dataset of this release, comprising 1,100 atmospheric and 200 deposition data points from the Eurasian region. The data suggest a release from a nuclear reprocessing facility located in the Southern Urals, possibly from the Mayak nuclear complex. A release from a crashed satellite as well as a release on Romanian territory (despite high activity concentrations) can be excluded. The model age of the radioruthenium supports the hypothesis that fuel was reprocessed ≤2 years after discharge, possibly for the production of a high-specific activity 144 Ce source for a neutrino experiment in Italy.