Scientists have put forward another thought of what caused the unusual spike of radiation recorded nearChernobylduring the opening days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine . rather of tanks kicking up contaminated soil or the leak or careful release of radioactive material , they surmise the rise radiation levels might have been create by unknown Russian military equipment messing with sensors in the domain .
On February 24 and 25 , as Russia advanced into the desert metropolis of Pripyat and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant , anotable spindle in Vasco da Gamma radiationwas reported by Ukraine ’s nuclear agency and the home ministry .
A squad of scientists from the UK has lease a close tone at the spot by analyse the readings choose from a internet of 67 gamma detectors place around the grounds of the ruined nuclear power plant , recognise as the Comprehensive Radiation Monitoring and Early Warning System ( CRMS ) .
Their work — which has not yet been match - reexamine — can be read on the preprint serverarXiv .
Modeling of how contaminated soil might react to being drive over evoke that vehicle movements disturbing the soil would n’t result in such gamey levels of radiation to be enter . They set about to pass over the front of the Russian military in the area using Sentinel satellite imaging , but bump that the images were too low quality to put on any tangible perceptivity .
what is more , the fix of the high radiation therapy layer does not appear to be linked to the location of areas where radioactive dust is being contain , hint that a news leak or deliberate release is also an unlikely explanation .
After exclude these two explanations , the investigator contend that the answer might rest in how Russian military communication equipment was meddling with the sensing element , which wirelessly commit data back to the central hub at the flora .
“ Military electro - magnetic relative frequency interference may potentially cause coverage anomaly from detector , but again this would be expected to pursue a spatial pattern and to be honour for gamma battery-acid pace detectors at other locating in Ukraine where military activity has take place . A more plausible explanation may be that reception of wireless signals by the CRMS internet base - post in Chornobyl was cut off , ” the research worker write .
As a counterargument , there have beenunverified reportsthat some Russian soldier had to be pulled out of the Chernobyl area after falling sick from actinotherapy poisoning , suggesting there was a genuine rise in contamination levels . The troops allegedly drive through a extremely contaminated destiny of woods near the ruins of the force plant without wearing any protective equipment .
It ’s worth noting that this is still very early piece of work and the scientists do n’t have much datum to play with . return the on-going battle in Ukraine , it ’s insufferable to send researcher into the field and gather real on - the - earth information . Further blurring the situation , the squad mark that the CRMS web has been offline since other March , so they ’re currently being get out in the dark about radioactivity levels in the field .
“ The CRMS , and other monitoring networks , need to come back online desperately so that the radiological situation in Ukraine , where intense military activity continues in some areas , can be monitored , ” the team reason out
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
