"Hot Souvenirs"
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Russian soldiers that ransacked the Chernobyl nuclear site after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine took “souvenirs” with them from laboratories that were highly radioactive and deadly, Ukraine’s state nuclear company said Saturday. “These ‘heroes’ take the Darwin award from those doomed Russians who breathed in dust in the Red Forest,” Energoatom said in a statement on Telegram. In addition to looting computers and equipment, the Russian troops “unauthorizedly entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources” and “stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about 7 million becquerels,” the nuclear company said, noting that “this is comparable to 700 kg of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation.” Citing the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, the company said it was believed the Russian soldiers took the “deadly” items “as souvenirs.” But if they were hoping to bring these souvenirs back home to impress their friends, they’re in for a surprise, as “carrying such a souvenir with you for two weeks will inevitably lead to radiation burns, radiation sickness and irreversible processes in the body,” according to Energoatom.
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Russian soldiers that ransacked the Chernobyl nuclear site after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine took “souvenirs” with them from laboratories that were highly radioactive and deadly, Ukraine’s state nuclear company said Saturday. “These ‘heroes’ take the Darwin award from those doomed Russians who breathed in dust in the Red Forest,” Energoatom said in a statement on Telegram. In addition to looting computers and equipment, the Russian troops “unauthorizedly entered a repository of ionizing radiation sources” and “stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of about 7 million becquerels,” the nuclear company said, noting that “this is comparable to 700 kg of radioactive waste with the presence of beta and gamma radiation.” Citing the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, the company said it was believed the Russian soldiers took the “deadly” items “as souvenirs.” But if they were hoping to bring these souvenirs back home to impress their friends, they’re in for a surprise, as “carrying such a souvenir with you for two weeks will inevitably lead to radiation burns, radiation sickness and irreversible processes in the body,” according to Energoatom.
Does not surprise me. In fact in ‘93 when I posted into Western Siberia for work, my landlord, a highly educated retired geologist, advised that I boil the tap water before drinking or cooking not because of the usual bacterial contamination, but rather possible radioactivity from the nearest nuclear station some 400 km east of where I was to live. When I pointed out that boiling the water would do nothing other than produce radioactive steam in the air if the water were contaminated, he gave me an incredulous look and said that “Russian radiation is different from foreign radiation and that has been scientifically proven that boiling the water will destroy all the radioactive elements.” He then went on to say that in event I do inadvertently drink unboiled tap water I should asap drink a glass of warm vodka mixed with some herb available at all the local pharmacies as an antidote.
So no, I’m not at all surprised at this more recent story. Am sure the Russian soldiers had plenty of radiation antidote on hand while they pillaged .
