...............a large batch of British tank ammunition with depleted uranium, which was recently brought to Ukraine along with Storm Shadow missiles, was also destroyed. As a result of a huge explosion, particles of depleted uranium could be dispersed on the territory of the Khmelnytsky region, which, taking into account the experience of Yugoslavia and Iraq, could lead to an outbreak of cancer in the medium term. There are already reports that the radiation background has allegedly increased in Khmelnitsky. Let's wait for actual confirmation.
https://files.catbox.moe/or6wbe.mp4
https://files.catbox.moe/ul4m0y.mp4
I normally have no problem viewing catbox videos but none of those will play?? I was using Brave, but today Firefox will play them. Curious.
Also. the explosion was in the bony hills of Western Ukraine, not Eastern and Southern Ukraine, where fertile soil is located. And the wind was in a Westerly direction, so depending on how long the heavy particles stay suspended in the air, Poland may get a dose. Nevertheless gamma rays is air-borne radiation that is a wave - not particles which emit Alpha and Beta radiation that is short-range (literally millimeters)- i.e. one has to ingest the particles, sharp and needle-like, to get dosed in ones gut, kidney or lung.
I saw lots of discussion going on about how DU does not create gamma radiation - which led to speculation that there was a tactical nuke hidden under the heavy ammunition (remember the theft of suitcase nukes in Ukraine years ago?). A weird tangent, because who is the nuclear terrorist? Ukrainians for storing a tactical nuke, or Russians for targeting it?
However, others pointed out that Depleted Uranium (now deleted uranium) still has a significant component of enriched Uranium (roughly 30%), and anyway, the degradation of enriched uranium has many products on the way to becoming just lead, many of which emit Gamma rays (which takes billions of years BTW) - so yeah, there will be some Gamma radiation in the case of such a mushroom cloud, regardless of how supposedly depleted the Uranium is. The MICs have been telling us that DU is safe and effective. That was a lie BTW.
In any case, I believe this event is going to wake people up. I read that heaps of Ukrainians are now packing their bags and getting out of Dodge. Europeans downwind will be getting jumpy too, if they have any sense. Even if the radiation spike is minimal or whatever, there are many that just don't want ANY of it - as is evidenced by the Ukrainians using robots to extinguish the fire. Perhaps there will be renewed protests to stop all this nonsense-war in Europe.
It's a perfect excuse to have those people, including the army, move away from Western Ukraine, and create a DMZ, just there.
Slight error. DU has 0.3% U-235, not 30% (natural uranium has 0.72%). All isotopes of uranium decay primarily by alpha emission or spontaneous fission (neutron emission). Some of the decay products emit beta particles or gamma photons. The rise in gamma radiation is relative to the natural background level, and is only an uptick. Hard to accept that this has any health risk per se. One would not want to ingest uranium metal or compounds simply as a measure against heavy metal poisoning.
I agree it is only a minimal uptick, and thanks for the correction on the numbers.
My main point is that this whole episode is fraught with people talking about it. The confusion will create discourse. They cannot hide that there was an uptick in radiation, and this means that they have to admit that DU munitions do this sort of thing. Either that, or admit that the Ukrainians were hiding a 'suitcase nuke' in their ammo pile.
Also, there will be people who will over-react. As in, the people who are in the way of the radioactive cloud, even if it won't cause significant harm to a population, it may cause harm to an individual. And that's the whole essence of a wicked problem: there are so many angles and points of view. There will be political ramifications, as well as economical ones.
So you see, I am not really worried about the radiation so much as musing. I wonder if this incident will wake up a movement. Is it being talked about in the mainstream media, for example, or is it being suppressed? After all, the West had egg on their face.