The Russian MOD reported two instances of destroying Ukrainian warehouses filled with depleted Uranium ammo and cruise missiles within a week. I would expect this to produce significant local contamination, and some of it might spread if a fire lifts the particles high enough into the atmosphere. I have been more-less consistently perceiving a 10% elevated radiation over natural background since this started, which makes me believe that more of this has been going on than officially reported, but the increase is still minuscule and wouldn’t be worthy of mention were it not the case that depleted Uranium is a low-radioactivity material, which means it would take quite a lot of it to make an impression in the gamma spectrum, but it’s quite toxic as a heavy metal. Also, if it’s detectable in Croatia, the concentration on the source has to be much worse, and since Ukraine is a major exporter of food, having soil contaminated by heavy metal particles that will eventually find their way to our food supply can’t be good. This is not something that is an immediate concern, as it will manifest itself in the following years, but nevertheless it’s a thing to consider.
There’s also that other thing I’m rather hesitant to mention because it might not be relevant to others at all, but still. Yesterday I was doing a budget calculation for October – a standard thing I always do, basically put together all the standard expenses, planned purchases, safety margins and so on, subtract from the expected income and if something is left over, buy gold. Well, what’s unusual is that I felt great unease and a feeling one would have when they’re out of money for something and no way of getting it in time, when I set normal, “peacetime” safety margins. When I increased them by the EUR value of one ounce of gold, the feeling changed to that of comfortably dealing with the situation and having no issues. The weird part of this is that I should not be having this kind of financial issues even if I miscalculated the budget and something unexpected did come up – it’s a matter of calling my precious metals dealer, and selling him a gold coin or two, and I would have the money on my account that or the following day. The situation where I’m out of money, I need it badly and instantly, and can’t get it anywhere, that’s not realistic unless something major is going on – a communications breakdown, nobody is working including the bullion dealer, I have to rely on what I have in Euros, in cash and on bank accounts, and I need more money than usual to do something, and quickly. The weird combination of factors required for me to get such a feeling is what prompts me to report it. It might be nothing, but I’m still obeying it diligently – I increased the safety margin by EUR value of one ounce of gold for the month of October, and I now have that comfortable feeling I associate with having acted appropriately and everything being fine. I would recommend postponing any extravagant spending you might have planned for other times, increasing your safety margins and not stretching yourself in any way, just as a precaution.
https://yourimageshare.com/ib/abbkDVaH1r
I measured this yesterday at Balaton, Hungary. So it was measured 0.07µSv/h with +/- 5% accuracy at water level. In a village 1km away it measured 0.09µSv/h with +/- 13% accuracy.
At the same time in north-west Croatia it measured 0.11µSv/h.
It’s baseline here, so apparently there was either no increase or the wind didn’t blow in this direction.
As you were the first to notice, there was a bit more radiation here in the past 10 or so days. I wrote those 0.11µSv/h because there is a noticeable drop for 3-4 days. Actually it’s 0.12µSv/h here at north-west of Croatia.
https://yourimageshare.com/ib/1z0Ubtb4Nh
I don’t know what is the cause of the lower radiation at Balaton, the ionized air from the surface of the lake, maybe the negative ions in the air can affect the radiation? If part of the background radiation comes from the earth, perhaps the lake as a water mass affects the absorption of radiation from the earth.
It is possible that no clouds are gathering over the lake. Here on the Adriatic, you can often determine the position of distant islands by looking for clouds standing above them, while there are none above the water.
But the fact is that Balaton is a very different, beneficial region. Possibly with also reduced background radiation, there the influence of the environment is different, it is felt through the plant cover, people and landscape. It could be that it is negative ions in the air due to the influence of the lake itself, but the landscape is generally very beneficial.
It was baseline until yesterday evening, when it started alternating to 10% elevated, which is 0.11µSv/h.
Also, Japan has been releasing Fukushima radioactive water in the ocean recently, this time intentionally, because why not: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-release-fukushima-water-into-ocean-starting-aug-24-2023-08-22/
Here’s a helpful guide what to avoid.
Honestly, I don’t think radiation in food and water is our main concern. The main concern is the economic collapse, combined with an engineered food source destruction; basically, the food prices will go up, income will go down, and a significant portion of the population won’t be able to afford food. Combined with an engineered shortage of fertilisers, engineered shortage of hydrocarbons, shutting down of nuclear power plants and forcing the useless “green” sources, we are going to have a combination of deindustrialisation, mass starvation, unaffordable heating, and I expect the states trying to present themselves as the saviour, acting as if they didn’t cause the entirety of the problem with their “regulations” and “sanctions”.
The economy is already failing – an increasing number of people is finding themselves in a pickle financially, with reduced income, inability to get work, state and bank restrictions getting in the way of everything, and real estate prices are making rent unaffordable.
I don’t think we’ll have time to get radiation poisoning, we’ll die of other causes first.