Every day radiology

Comrades, I have updated this blog with tags, and a search box, so that you now may search for articles by using terms and tags instead of going through every post seeking for a specific subject.

This post was going to be only about the above, as I'm currently writing articles for my exhibition, but then something else came up. It's not so much about Chernobyl as it is about radiation.

415 bq by the window.

Recently, I met professor Janne Wallenius, who lent me his Gamma Scout. A Gamma Scout is nowadays probably the most commonly used popular device for measuring radiation, which was also used by my group during our Chernobyl expedition in May. I borrowed it to get a chance to learn more about how it works, and also check the readings on various places. Starting out in Gothenburg city, the average background radiation showed to be approximately 0,22 µSv/h. Returning to my home outside the city, the readings showed an average of 0,16 µSv/h, and then I went inside my house, where the readings immediately increased. I quickly realized that this must be a so called Radon house After having checked the numbers displayed over a few hours, making a note of the wide fluctuations displayed (between 0,15 and 0,32 µSv/h), I decided to switch the GS into reading bequerel instead and I'm glad I did...  

Here in Sweden, the MRL in resident buildings is 200 bq/m³ and the readings were a solid 447 bq in the middle of the room. No fluctuations. Today I measured another apartment, where the readings were even higher: 547 bq. On Monday I will contact the housing company and demand them to investigate this further, because I cant be 100% sure that these readings are  exactly what I think they are, but if they are and I was to make a point here, I'd say it's healthier to live in a house in Pripyat. 

Inside the Sargophagus

Not the Sarcophagus

Many of us are curious about Reactor 4 and the Sarcophagus, but for what reason? To make a scientific experience; because of an obsession or just to have been there?

Already I've heard from people who desperately want to get into the Sarcophagus due to beliefs that it hides and protects a secret, and in this way the 4th Reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant has already become a myth. Trust me when I say that there are no treasures hidden in there. 

The slaves of ancient Egypt, who built the graves and monuments for their Pharaos were said to bury many secrets with their lords. Ancient Egypt were a realm that worshipped death, and they prepared the Pharaos' sarcophagi for an afterlife. In Chernobyl, there's only half ife, and inside the Sarcophacus, death is served in portions.

A number of people have work and education to accomplish in which Chernobyl and the 4th reactor become relevant, and recently I was introduced to one of them. 

Janne Wallenius is a professor in reactor physics and the deputy head of the physics department of KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan,  Stockholm, Sweden) and every second year enters the Zone with Postgraduate students, as a part of their education.

In 2009, he had the rare opportunity of entering the control room of the 4th reactor of CHNPP...

An exception was made. He reckoned that cameras weren't allowed  in the Sarcophagus, and thus he entered with the camera already turned on...

 Janne Wallenius was 20 meters from the reactor core, of course not allowed to approach further.