Soviet-era AA-gun on display as monument in public park turns out to be radioactive - Sensationalist Headlines

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40514253"]Source.[/URL] [QUOTE]A Soviet-era anti-aircraft gun in a public park in Russia's far north has been leaking radiation over 150 times the safe level, it seems. It only came to light recently, although the Second World War monument has been on public display in the city of Arkhangelsk for a good four years. The discovery was made by local man Dmitry Surin, who told BBC Monitoring that he had decided to check the city's main landmarks with his portable radiation counter "out of sheer interest". He certainly did not expect to see such high figures, and promptly shared his findings on the popular social network VKontakte. The park, commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany, is popular with locals and tourists, and children especially like clambering over the gun installation. Dmitry rang the Emergencies Ministry and was surprised with the swift reaction. "They took me seriously, and the incident response team arrived within half an hour. The gun was removed by midnight," he said. People on social media have reacted with dismay to the news that the monument was dangerous. "It was standing there for years, and kids were constantly climbing on it. It's horrible," said Pavel Zyukov on VKontakte. As to why the installation is radioactive, Dmitry thinks it's a "matter of radioactive parts that somebody forgot to remove before putting the gun on display". The city mayor's office says the gun was acquired from the Defence Ministry in 2013 and had "passed all the required checks", the local KarelNovosti website reports. The gun has now been taken to an Emergencies Ministry base outside the city, and will undergo further checks. Dmitry himself takes a philosophical approach - "It could happen anywhere, but I wouldn't worry about it too much, or else you go mad."[/QUOTE] As a guess it was probably used in nuclear testing during the Cold War then got dumped in storage to rot until someone saw and figured it would make a nice display piece. It's scary to think of the potential damage that this might have caused, though.

Yeah, that gun wouldn't have any radioactive parts to begin with, it's a completely analogue 45mm pompom. Probably nuclear tests, or for some reason been somewhere near Chernobyl or one of the other Soviet nuclear disasters.

[QUOTE=GordonZombie;52442075]"They took me seriously, and the incident response team arrived within half an hour. The gun was removed by midnight," he said.[/QUOTE] No surprise, we DO know how dangerous nuclear emergency can be.

[QUOTE=Riller;52442100]Yeah, that gun wouldn't have any radioactive parts to begin with, it's a completely analogue 45mm pompom. Probably nuclear tests, or for some reason been somewhere near Chernobyl or one of the other Soviet nuclear disasters.[/QUOTE] It's pretty scary to think that something that this gun happened to be just close enough to a nuclear event to become radioactive and has been so for all this time. Radiation is pretty fucking sinister.

I'm interested to know what type of radiation it is and what's the source.

Eeeeh I suppose there's a chance there could be some very very small remnants of something similar to depleted uranium shells but I don't remember ever hearing of russia developing such a thing so I'm going to go with it having fallout on it from Chernobyl as stated earlier. I don't think regular nuclear fallout would still be putting anything out this many years later.

I just shudder to think that loads of little boys rode the gun as little boys do...

[QUOTE=Stopper;52442264]I just shudder to think that loads of little boys rode the gun as little boys do...[/QUOTE] Welp, there goes the fertility of about a few dozen russians and/or tourists.

[QUOTE=thisguy123;52442213]It's pretty scary to think that something that this gun happened to be just close enough to a nuclear event to become radioactive and has been so for all this time. Radiation is pretty fucking sinister.[/QUOTE] There's a fleet of vehicles just abandoned in the Chernobyl exclusion zone for the simple fact that they were all irradiated beyond safe levels during relief efforts.

[QUOTE] Dmitry himself takes a philosophical approach - "It could happen anywhere, but I wouldn't worry about it too much, or else you go mad."[/QUOTE] I like how chill he is about this

What is that geiger counter measuring? If it's CPM or CPS it doesn't really say much about the strength of the radiation (or what type it is). Could be anything from trivial-but-unnecessary to flat out dangerous depending on distance and exposure times of those who were exposed.

[QUOTE=WhyNott;52442330]I like how chill he is about this[/QUOTE] [I]Such is life in the zone.[/I]

[QUOTE=thisguy123;52442213]It's pretty scary to think that something that this gun happened to be just close enough to a nuclear event to become radioactive and has been so for all this time. Radiation is pretty fucking sinister.[/QUOTE] you're constantly bathed in radiation from your potassium and carbon decaying and from cosmic rays it's just a fact of life

[QUOTE=WhyNott;52442330]I like how chill he is about this[/QUOTE] Life in Russia does this to you. Either you break, or you become a nihilist.

[QUOTE=Stopper;52442264]I just shudder to think that loads of little boys rode the gun as little boys do...[/QUOTE] the radiation is the least of one's concern when living in the industrial enviromental hell that is Russia. Pretty much every population center was built around some heavy industry and they never particularly cared about industrial runoff

[QUOTE=TheMrFailz;52442262]Eeeeh I suppose there's a chance there could be some very very small remnants of something similar to depleted uranium shells but I don't remember ever hearing of russia developing such a thing so I'm going to go with it having fallout on it from Chernobyl as stated earlier. I don't think regular nuclear fallout would still be putting anything out this many years later.[/QUOTE] DU is a pretty new thing, and the depleted part should tell you a lot about its radioactivity.

[QUOTE=butre;52443286]DU is a pretty new thing, and the depleted part should tell you a lot about its radioactivity.[/QUOTE] Getting hit by the fragments are enough to give you cancer, but not so much that just standing by it will give off an actual reading on a Geiger counter.

[QUOTE=DeEz;52442351]What is that geiger counter measuring? If it's CPM or CPS it doesn't really say much about the strength of the radiation (or what type it is). Could be anything from trivial-but-unnecessary to flat out dangerous depending on distance and exposure times of those who were exposed.[/QUOTE] It's a Terra MKC-05 which measures in the range of 0.1 to 9999 uSv/hour. The 0.3 uSv/h isn't a safe level like the article states, it's just the average radiation dose we get daily due to the background radiation. Although 46 uSv/h is quite a high rate, even if not deadly it's certainly not normal. I found this link containing some tables with radiation levels at Pripyat, an area that wasn't decontaminated shows 22 uSv/h and a claw that was used during clean up shows 336 uSv/h. [url]http://chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation-levels/[/url]

[QUOTE=Swebonny;52443657]It's a Terra MKC-05 which measures in the range of 0.1 to 9999 uSv/hour. The 0.3 uSv/h isn't a safe level like the article states, it's just the average radiation dose we get daily due to the background radiation. Although 46 uSv/h is quite a high rate, even if not deadly it's certainly not normal. I found this link containing some tables with radiation levels at Pripyat, an area that wasn't decontaminated shows 22 uSv/h and a claw that was used during clean up shows 336 uSv/h. [url]http://chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation-levels/[/url][/QUOTE] Unless you know the type of radiation being emitted, you can't usefully convert activity to absorbed dose, much less equivalent dose.

I wonder if the radiation could have happened due to something like [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totskoye_nuclear_exercise"]this[/URL].

[QUOTE=Stopper;52442264]I just shudder to think that loads of little boys rode the gun as little boys do...[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TheMrFailz;52442271]Welp, there goes the fertility of about a few dozen russians and/or tourists.[/QUOTE] odds are this wasn't a significant dosage. hardly a safe exposure but i doubt it had any long-term effects. the human body is pretty all-or-nothing when it comes to rads.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;52443657] The 0.3 uSv/h isn't a safe level like the article states, it's just the average radiation dose we get daily due to the background radiation. [/QUOTE] There's no such a thing as a safe amount of radiation. Literally every single ionising particle is a tiny little Russian roulette bullet that can trigger cancer which your immune system gonna fail to deal with. It's just, we are always exposed to radiation and until certain levels the probability is so low it's not worth worrying about.