European iodine mystery solved via World Nuclear News

The cause of trace detection of radioactive iodine-131 in Europe has been identified as ‘most probably’ a release from a Hungarian factory making medical isotopes.

Authorities in that country today informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of their theory that the release may have begun at a facility run by Institute of Isotopes Ltd (Izotop) on 8 September and continued until yesterday.

Iodine-131 is one isotope that could be released by a nuclear reactor accident, such as occurred at Fukushima Daiichi earlier this year, but in that circumstance it would be accompanied by other isotopes such as caesium-137. No such fission products were detected in Europe, giving authorities full confidence to declare the iodine they detected could not have been from either Fukushima or any new nuclear accident.

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