ever heard of "radiopharmaceuticals" ?

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php


Very low levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been detected in Europe but the particles are not believed to pose a public health risk, the UN's nuclear agency said on Friday, adding that it was seeking the source. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Viennabased United Nations watchdog, said it did not believe the radioactive particles were from Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant after its emergency in March. Experts said the origin of the radiation, which has been spreading for about two weeks, remained a mystery but could come from many possible sources ranging from medical laboratories or hospitals to nuclear submarines. The Czech Republic's nuclear security watchdog said it had tipped off the IAEA after detecting the radiation it thought was coming from abroad but not from a nuclear power plant. It suggested it may come from production of radiopharmaceuticals. Paddy Regan, a professor of nuclear physics at Britain's University of
Surrey, said the suggestion that it may have leaked from a radiopharmaceuticals maker "sounds very sensible and totally reasonable." He said since iodine was used in the treatment of thyroid conditions it was also likely that hospitals in many European countries would have it. "It would be very unlikely for it to have come from Fukushima since the accident was so many months ago and iodine-131 has a brief halflife," he said. Iodine-131 is a short-lived radioisotope that has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days, the IAEA said.
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[Edweird]

1. Iodine 131 is a byproduct of uranium fission (or bombs). Is there fission at Fukushima?

There have been other indicators that there is. The fact that "the accident was so many months ago and iodine-131 has a brief halflife" does not, in my mind, exclude Fukushima.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. Iodine-131 has a half-life of 8 days

Do you really want to enter into an argument that prevailing winds have carried iodine-131 2/3 of the way around the world and deposited sufficient quantities to be detected in very specific areas of central Europe? That's all I've got to say about that. Continue to defend your hypothesis - against an array of scientists who have pooh-poohed any such notion, mind you - if you wish, but I have much less important things to do. Magical thinking regarding nuclear physics, meteorology & electronics engineering technology leads to unwarranted panic.

[Edweird]

4. So you're asserting that no iodine-131 from Fukushima ever reached Europe due to it's 8 day

half life and prevailing winds? Is that correct?

[MadHound]

2. Yeah, I used to make radiopharmaceuticals

For one of the largest suppliers in the world. I can assure you that Iodine-131 is not a byproduct of the process of making radiopharmaceuticals.

Any other questions?

[waddirum]

5. Isn't Iodine-131 itself a radiopharmaceutical?

My dad was treated for Thyroid cancer with radio-iodine. I'm not sure which isotope it was (131?)

I remember having to use separate bathrooms for a few weeks, because of his radioactive pee.

[Tesha]

6. Yes. (NT)