For those of you who are “nuclear curious”, the attack on Iranian nuclear sites could have resulted in trace amounts of radioactive material getting kicked into the atmosphere. The Earth’s atmosphere is a river that flows across the globe, and other places will “see” those isotopes with sensitive enough instruments.

Here is gamma radiation air monitoring open data, including data from #SNOLAB where I work. These data aid in nuclear non-proliferation.

remap.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Advance…

This entry was edited (4 weeks ago)
in reply to Stephen Sekula

(Rethread of post)

#SNOLAB’s monitoring station is CAN7023 and on a typical day sees a gamma radiation level of about 50-70 nanoSieverts per hour (nSv/h). Typical ambient radiation levels are 2 mSv in a year. Gamma radiation would thus typically contribute 0.5 mSv in a year, or about 1/4 of the total amount. Many gamma rays come from cosmic radiation acting on the atmosphere.

You nuclear-curious folks might watch for changes in public gamma levels in the coming days.

remap.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Advance…

in reply to Stephen Sekula

(Rethread of post)

Curious about radiation doses, and what is normal and what is not? Learn more from the #Sievert wikipedia page:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert

While 2 mSv is the typical ambient background radiation dose you get merely from living on this planet, the occupational dose limit (where health risks begin to increase) is 50 mSv per year.

Trace amounts of radioisotopes will generate much less, but potentially more than 60 nSv/h. Will be interesting to watch in coming days.

in reply to Stephen Sekula

ULTRA light mode - unreadable even on archive.is.

The "attack" was a classic case of egotestical Willy Waving by the US saying "Ours Is Bigger Than Yours".

I don't think the technical side of turning a mountain into the world's biggest dirty bomb got considered.
Indeed those that ordered it are too dim to understand anyway, while their underlings are too fanatical to care.