The theft of radioactive material in
Tammiku took place in
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
. Three brothers in Tammiku,
Männiku, Saku Parish
Männiku is a village in Saku Parish, Harju County in northern Estonia. (retrieved 27 July 2021)
It has a railway station on the Tallinn - Viljandi railway line operated by Elron (rail transit).
See also
* Männiku, Tallinn
Männiku (Est ...
(
Harju County
Harju County ( et, Harju maakond or ''Harjumaa''), is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in Northern Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the so ...
),
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, who were
scrap metal
scavengers
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...
, entered a fenced area in the woods and broke into a small shed that was seemingly abandoned (after having had no success with entering a larger building inside the area), with stairs leading to an underground hall. The brothers did not know that the buildings were
nuclear waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons ...
storage facilities (although there were signs at the gate, they did not see them because they had climbed over the fence elsewhere). One of the brothers, Ivan, suffered a
crush injury
A crush injury is injury by an object that causes compression of the body. This form of injury is rare in normal civilian practice, but common following a natural disaster. Other causes include industrial accidents, road traffic collisions, bui ...
when a
drum fell onto him. The brothers placed some pieces of metal into their pockets and went home, planning to return later. Ivan placed a metal cylinder in his pocket, not knowing that it was a strong
caesium-137
Caesium-137 (), cesium-137 (US), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nucle ...
radioactive source
A radioactive source is a known quantity of a radionuclide which emits ionizing radiation; typically one or more of the radiation types gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles, and neutron radiation.
Sources can be used for irradiation, where ...
that was released from a container broken by the falling drum. He received a 4,000 rad whole-body dose and died 12 days later. Only after Ivan's family's dog died, and Ivan's stepson showed
radiation burn
A radiation burn is a damage to the skin or other biological tissue and organs as an effect of radiation. The radiation types of greatest concern are thermal radiation, radio frequency energy, ultraviolet light and ionizing radiation.
The most ...
of his hands (as a result of briefly touching the cylinder), was the cause of Ivan's death identified. The delay in information was due to the brothers' reluctance to admitting to the break-in.
The storage facility was decommissioned in 2008 and 55TBq worth of radioactive waste was sorted and disposed of.
References
External links
Tammiku stolen source, 1994Robert Johnston. Tammiku stolen source, 1994. Johnston's Archive.
Health disasters in Estonia
Saku Parish
Crime in Estonia
1994 in Estonia
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