Mystery deepens over Europe-wide radiation alert

A Hungarian laboratory has denied claims made by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it is the most likely source of the outbreak of radioactive particles recently detected in the skies above Europe. Low levels of iodine-131 were measured in the atmosphere above the Czech Republic and several other European countries earlier this month and the IAEA moved swiftly with assurances it posed no danger to public health. 

The IAEA reported it had received information from the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority that the most probable source is the Institute of Isotopes in Budapest, which produces radio-isotopes for health care, research and industrial applications.

The Hungarian authorities said the release of iodine-131 started on 8 September and the cause is under investigation.

Officials at the Budapest-based Institute of Isotopes said it was impossible for the center to be responsible for radioactivity detected hundreds of kilometers away.

Iodine-131 is a short-lived radio-isotope with a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days, and IAEA stressed that the levels detected in the atmosphere are extremely low.

“If any member of the public were to breathe iodine for a whole year at the levels measured in European countries, then they would receive a dose in the grange of 0.01 microsieverts for the year,” the agency stated

But officials with the Institute of Isotopes say that their organization is most likely not responsible for the emissions of the iodine.

Mihaly Lakatos, a highly ranking official at the institute said that while a filtering problem at his organization may be responsible for some of the iodine-131 detected in Hungary, it could not be the source of detections hundreds of kilometres away in other European nations.

"The amounts of iodine-131 measured in neighboring countries cannot have much to do with this, because the distances involved rule out that the amount we emit could be registered over there," Lakatos told Reuters.

Jozsef Kornyei, director of the Institute of Isotopes, also told the Associated Press that it was "extremely unlikely" that the leak at the Budapest plant was the cause of trace levels of Iodine-131 measured in several European countries, based on weather factors.

Kornyei said that the firm first noticed the heightened release of iodine-131 during the first half of 2011.

Production restarted in September after new filters were installed, but the release of radioactive material stayed above normal levels, so the process was halted again this month.

Kornyei told the news agency that new ventilators were being added at the plant in an effort to limit the excessive release of the radioactive material and that production of Iodine-131 would not be restarted until next year.

A letter sent Thursday to the IAEA by the HAEA said the cause of the higher radioactivity was under investigation despite being hampered by administrative difficulties, it was reported.

"Unfortunately, in Hungary the licensing and surveillance of the nuclear facilities and the laboratories using high amounts of radioisotopes are in the hands of different authorities," the Hungarian nuclear watchdog said in its letter to the IAEA.

"The communication problems we faced in the present situation call our government's attention for an improvement and simplification of our regulatory system," it said, according to AP.

HAEA head Jozsef Ronaky said that it was too early for the IAEA to draw firm conclusions that the Institute for Isotopes was alone responsible for the iodine emissions, but that the institute was probably to blame.

For further information: http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-news/122824-mystery-deepens-over-europe-wide-radiation-alert.html

Photo: http://www.x-raysafety.com/radiation-sign.htm