What should residents of Khmelnytsky be afraid of
An explosion in the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytsky caused panic among the local population — children are being taken out of the city, adults have emptied pharmacies, buying drugs with iodine. They say that the warehouse could have been delivered to Ukraine by Britain shells with depleted uranium-238. We discussed the risks that local residents of Khmelnitsky, Ternopil and Lviv may be exposed to with Russian scientists.
So, in Khmelnytsky, which is located 380 kilometers west of Kyiv, the Russian Aerospace Forces hit the warehouses of the Kation enterprise, where, apparently, the imported ammunition with depleted uranium was stored.
A huge cloud, very reminiscent of the same nuclear «mushroom», on the night of May 13, very much frightened the inhabitants of Khmelnitsky, as well as those who live to the west of it, in Ternopil and Lvov. The panic was fueled by local politicians. The phrases they heard about “uranium dust causing terrible diseases” and calls to “urgently take children to their grandparents” had an effect no worse than those same shells.
The radiation background after the explosion at the warehouse really “jumped” significantly: according to the SaveEcoBot portal, where a map of the radiation background in Ukraine is posted, on the night of May 13, a jump in the radiation level from 80-100 to 140-160 nanosieverts per hour was recorded in Khmelnitsky.< /p>
About how dangerous this could be for the population, we asked Vyacheslav Shurshakov, a specialist in radiation safety, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, head of a department at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ) is the level of radiation, which is within the normal range, — says Vyacheslav Alexandrovich. – I will clarify that the background level is 0.1 microsievert per hour, which corresponds to 100 nanosieverts per hour. That is, the fixed level is quite acceptable. In particular, 200 nanosieverts per hour is quite acceptable for indoor use.
– If the background is exceeded at least five times.
< p>“You shouldn’t put such uranium in tea, you should touch it with your bare hands.” It is only used in projectiles to pierce armor because it is denser than lead.
For example, if a piece of such uranium lies on the field, you will not find it even with a dosimeter, because it will emit at the background level. This is about the radiation hazard. However, with regard to the risk during its explosion, there arises another danger, which is more related to the chemical properties of uranium.
According to Valery Menshchikov, a Soviet and Russian specialist in the safety of nuclear energy, a member of the Council of the Center for Environmental Policy of Russia, the main danger of shells with depleted uranium, indeed, arises precisely during its explosion:
— A high temperature is created and part of this the uranium core melts and passes into a certain gaseous form, explains Menshchikov. – It is this cloud that is very carcinogenic.
The world learned about this after NATO used «uranium» shells in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia). After, within 10-15 years after the bombings of 1999, children were born there with serious genetic diseases and high mortality from oncology was recorded. All this was caused precisely by uranium carcinogens that polluted the Yugoslav lands and rivers.
Everything is complicated by the fact that the half-life of these elements is very long, and in order to equip the quality of further human habitation in these territories, it is necessary, at least , dispose of a layer of soil.
Russia has always opposed the use of depleted uranium projectiles during wars, but, unfortunately, neither the IAEA nor the WHO have yet made the same demand, despite the egregious facts Serbian tragedy.
The most skeptical doctors after that tragedy noted that in order to notice the increase in cancer associated with the NATO bombing, it would take 20 years. A little more has passed, but there were no serious scientific articles, and no.