They do not exist in nature, but they are formed as a result of the fission of uranium and plutonium nuclei in the reactors of nuclear power plants, submarines, ships, during explosions atomic bombs. Most radioactive isotopes of ruthenium are short-lived, but two - ruthenium-103 and ruthenium-106 - have fairly long half-lives (39.8 days and 1.01 years) and accumulate in reactors. It is significant that during the decay of plutonium, ruthenium accounts for up to 30% of the total mass of all fission fragments. From a theoretical point of view, this fact is certainly interesting. It even has a special "highlight": the dream of alchemists came true - the base metal turned into a noble one. Indeed, plutonium production facilities today throw away tens of kilograms of the noble metal ruthenium. But the practical harm caused by this process to nuclear technology would not pay off even if it were possible to use with benefit all that was obtained in nuclear reactors.
What is harmful ruthenium
One of the main advantages of nuclear fuel is its reproducibility. As you know, when "burning" uranium blocks "in nuclear reactors, a new nuclear fuel is formed -. At the same time, "ash" is also formed - fragments of the fission of uranium nuclei, including ruthenium. Ash, of course, has to be removed. Not only do the nuclei of fragmentation elements capture neutrons and break off the chain reaction, they also create radiation levels that are significantly higher than permissible. It is relatively easy to separate the bulk of the fragments from uranium and plutonium, which is done at special plants, but the radioactive one causes a lot of trouble.
Unspent and fragments are separated at special facilities. The first stage of separation is the dissolution of uranium blocks in nitric acid. This is where the trouble with ruthenium begins. When dissolved, part of it turns into complex nitroso compounds based on the trivalent group (RuNO)3+. This group forms complex compounds of various compositions in nitric acid. They interact with each other or with other ions in solution, hydrolyze or even combine into inorganic polymer molecules. The complexes are completely different, but it is very difficult to separate and identify them. The infinite variety of properties of ruthenium nitroso compounds poses many difficult questions for chemists and technologists.
There are several methods for separating fragments from plutonium and uranium. One of them is ion exchange. A solution containing various ions passes through a system of ion exchangers. The meaning of this operation is that they are retained by ion exchangers in the devices, while other elements freely pass through the entire system. However, it is only partially gone. Part of it remains on the ion exchanger along with uranium.
In another method - precipitation - it is precipitated with special reagents, and the fragments remain in solution. But along with uranium, a part of ruthenium also precipitates.
During purification by extraction, uranium is extracted from an aqueous solution with organic solvents, for example, esters of organophosphorus acids. The fragments remain in the aqueous phase, but not all - ruthenium partially passes into the organic phase together with uranium.
They tried to avoid the difficulties of purifying nuclear fuel from ruthenium by using dry methods that exclude the dissolution of uranium blocks. Instead of nitric acid, they were treated with fluorine. It was assumed that uranium in this case will turn into volatile hexafluoride and separate from non-volatile fluorides of fragmentation elements. But ruthenium remained true to itself here. It turned out that it also forms volatile fluorides.
Difficulties with ruthenium haunt technologists at the next stages of work with fissile materials. When catching fragments from waste solutions, most of the foreign elements can be transferred to the precipitate, and ruthenium, again, partially remains in solution. It does not guarantee its removal and biological treatment, when waste solutions are poured into special drainless reservoirs.
Ruthenium begins to gradually migrate into the soil, creating the danger of radioactive contamination at large distances from the reservoir. the same thing happens when fragments are buried in mines at great depths. Radioactive ruthenium, which (in the form of water-soluble nitroso compounds) is extremely mobile, or, more correctly, migratory, can go very far with groundwater.
The problem of cleaning - decontamination of equipment, clothing, etc. - from radioruthenium also has its own specifics. Depending on the chemical state of ruthenium, it can either be easily washed and removed, or deactivated with great difficulty.
Physicists, chemists, technologists, and especially radiochemists in many countries pay much attention to the fight against radioactive ruthenium. Several reports were devoted to this problem at the I and II International Conferences on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva. However, there are still no grounds to consider the fight against ruthenium successfully completed, and, apparently, chemists will have to work a lot more so that this problem can be transferred to the category of finally solved.
Mysterious ruthenium-106: how radiation from Chelyabinsk reached Krasnoyarsk
Roshydromet confirmed the excess of ruthenium-106 in the Chelyabinsk region: exceeding the radiation background by almost 1 thousand times in some localities. However, this happened only after almost 2 months. Europe was the first to raise the alarm. But so far, the source of radiation in Russia has not been found.
Later it became known that ruthenium-106 was recorded in the vicinity of Krasnoyarsk. TVK news learned the opinions of ecologists, scientists and doctors, and also found out how the radiation cloud reached Siberia.
What is ruthenium-106
Ruthenium-106 is a radioactive isotope of ruthenium. It does not exist in nature, it is an artificial element that appears only from human activity.
In particular, it is produced in nuclear reactors after the decay of uranium, is used in medicine in the treatment of oncological diseases of vision and radiation therapy, and is also used in satellite generators. 
The half-life of ruthenium is almost a year. But after that it does not become completely safe. The substance will no longer pose a threat to the environment in at least 40 years.
“Like any other radioactive isotope, it is dangerous. With its accumulation in the human body, the nervous, cardiovascular and digestive systems suffer, and the risk of tumor diseases increases. The effects do not appear immediately, but after a few months.
An interesting fact: ruthenium was discovered by a Russian chemist, professor of Kazan University Karl Klaus in 1844, the scientist named it in honor of Russia (from Latin ruthenium means "Russia").
Chronology of events
Release of ruthenium-106 in the Chelyabinsk region occurred approximately from 25 September to 1 October.
On September 29, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection of Germany recorded in European countries - Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France - a radioactive cloud of ruthenium and indicated that the source is located in Russia in the South Urals.
However, the Russian government said they "do not know about the accident on their territory." Rosatom also reported that there was no leakage at its enterprises.
According to the data of Roshydromet, which they had by that moment, insignificant excesses of the radiation background were recorded only in the territory of St. Petersburg.
Chief oncologist of the Chelyabinsk region Andrey Vazhenin informed"Interfax" that regional dispensary does not have information about the dangerous level of radiation in the region and advised those who are very worried to "watch football and drink beer."
Separately, we note that in the period from October 4 to October 7, ruthenium-106 was detected by specialists from the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Central Siberian UGMS" in the air over the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
November 23 Roshydromet published an article in which he stated that the department had never hidden from the inhabitants the data of monitoring the radiation situation in Russia.
In particular, the article states that the results of air samples from September 25 to October 6 were published on the website on October 13.
The ministry explained that the reports publish data in relation to background values (in relation to the previous measurement period). After the incident with ruthenium, Roshydromet decided to publish data in comparison with the established maximum allowable concentrations.
Also in document specified that the measurements of the radiation background obtained from September 25 to October 6 are “hundreds to thousands of times lower than the permissible average annual volumetric activity and do not pose a danger to the population.” About the same reported at the IAEA.
As a result, Roshydromet announced that it would not conduct an inspection and look for a source of radiation, since there was no threat to the health of residents.
“Therefore, there is no danger, we did not drive the wave. And we did not look for the source, because why look for it if there is no danger, ” informed RBC head of department Maxim Yakovenko.
Possible sources of radiation
After the publication of the report of Roshydromet Greenpeace announced that a possible source of the release of ruthenium-106 may be the Mayak enterprise, located in the closed city of Ozersk. Spent nuclear fuel is processed there.
There is another version of where pure ruthenium could come from in the Chelyabinsk region - damage to the satellite, which at that time was flying over the region.
Ecologists call this version "the most consistent".
She also explains why a jump in radiation levels was recorded in different places, unrelated to each other. For example, in Romania the concentrations exceeded those in Russia by 1.5-2 times.
“It seems to me that the most consistent version is that it was the destruction of some military satellite in the upper atmosphere.
This explains the fact that specialists have not been able to build a clear and distinct trace of the dispersion of ruthenium from some epicenter to the outskirts, when the concentration should fall. We see very patchy pollution, ”concludes the ecologist Alexander Kolotov.
How the radiation cloud came to the Krasnoyarsk Territory
By data unified state automated system monitoring of the radiation situation on the territory of the Russian Federation, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory there are 11 observation posts, which are concentrated around the capital of the region.
So, in our region there are the following posts: Krasnoyarsk, Shumikha-Divnogorsk, Kacha, Kemchuk, Balakhta, Shalinskoye, Uyar, Solyanka, Sukhobuzimskoye, Bolshaya Murta and Dzerzhinskoye.
What is the result
Roshydromet said it would not conduct an investigation as the concentrations of radioactive ruthenium-106 did not pose a threat to life.
Foreign media, due to the lack of intelligible information from Russia, began to aggravate the situation.
The following headlines appeared: “Was there a secret nuclear disaster in Russia? A gigantic toxic cloud and 1,000 more radioactivity than usual caused panic", "The reason for the unusual activity may be a secret launch of a Russian nuclear missile or a secret medical business, but no one is sure of anything", "The Russians are still silent about nuclear catastrophe that occurred this month beyond the Urals.
Some residents of our country are sure that the authorities deliberately hide information and do not want to conduct investigations so as not to spoil the reputation state organization Rosatom.
In early November, the Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of France reported a radioactive cloud over Europe, which could have appeared due to an accident at a nuclear facility in Russia or Kazakhstan. The leak, according to experts, occurred a month ago. And by the time the incident was announced, the radiation background had almost disappeared. The authorities of the mentioned countries hastened to refute accidents at nuclear enterprises. Over the next two weeks, the source of the leak was not named, but they tried to explain: there are no threats to health in the contaminated regions (the Urals, the Volga region, the Rostov region, the regions of Germany, France, Italy and Austria).
In Germany, Austria and Italy September 29 recorded an increased radiation background of the isotope ruthenium-106 (Ru-106), formed during testing nuclear weapons, nuclear man-made accidents.
October 8 German Federal Office for Radiation Protection and Federal Ministry for Protection environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety suggested that the source of ruthenium is in the Southern Urals. At the same time, the authorities ruled out an accident.
Rosatom, which oversees the nuclear industry, said that "in aerosol samples from September 25 to October 7 in the territory of the Russian Federation, including the South Urals, Ru-106 was not found, except for the only measurement point in St. Petersburg" . However, according to Rosatom, even there it was negligible.
In early October, Kommersant reported on the reason for the increase in background radiation, citing Nadezhda Kutepova, a human rights activist from Ozersk, who received political asylum in France.
In the comment " Novaya Gazeta» Nadezhda Kutepova said that her attention was drawn to the response of Rosatom to reports of a radioactive cloud recorded in Germany.
- I found out that on September 25 and 26 at Mayak ( plant for the production of nuclear weapons components in Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region— Ed.) new equipment was being tested, and also that alarms were announced in Ozersk these days,” Kutepova said, citing sources at the enterprise. - The incident could have occurred at the furnace during the vitrification of high-level radioactive waste. It is there that ruthenium is formed, which can be thrown away in its pure form.
However, representatives of the plant said that they are "all right".
After that, rumors appeared in Yekaterinburg that due to an accident at the Mayak plant, a radioactive cloud was moving towards the city. An anonymous message appeared on the social networks of the city, which was allegedly sent by an employee of a chemical and biological plant (spelling preserved).
“Today, in our scientific chemical and biological plant, the director made an announcement (a friend of a colleague works there). In general, in the Chelyabinsk region, an accident occurred at the Mayak, as a result of a radiation cloud that goes to the Ekb. Orientation will arrive tomorrow. Recommendations - close all windows at home and, if possible, not go outside, also living with alcohol, ginseng root and eleutherococcus (in a pharmacy), for adults, warm red wine or cognac in tea. In general, do not panic, the concentration is not such as to cause radiation sickness. But cancer is very strong.”
In response to this, the local Rospotrebnadzor stated that the level of background radiation on the border of the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions does not exceed the permissible level.
November 9 The Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of France released a report in which he spoke about the appearance of a radioactive cloud over Europe in the last days of September.
According to experts, the accident could have occurred in the last week of September in the area between the Volga and the Urals, south of the Ural Mountains, but the exact location cannot be determined. The outbreak may be either in Russia or in Kazakhstan.
The report notes that since October 6, the content of hazardous substances has been decreasing, and at the moment they are not in the air.
Map of the distribution of ruthenium from the Institute for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of France
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Why not Kazakhstan
There are plenty of places in Kazakhstan that could be among the "suspected of a leak": the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site alone is worth something. It is closed, but on its territory there is the Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology - this is the city of Kurchatov in the east of the republic, it falls into the zone marked by the French - inside which there is an operating reactor (another one is in Almaty). But on the day the French researchers spoke, the institute's employees immediately officially announced that they had no leaks - neither from the first nor from the second reactor.
There is also an Institute in Almaty nuclear physics, where pharmaceutical preparations are produced (ruthenium, if an excess of only it was recorded, could “leak” just from the pharmacological production), however, the local chiefs waved off possible accusations with all hands and feet.
At the same time, the institute has one more object - in the west of Kazakhstan, very close to the Russian border, in the city of Aksai. But the director of the institute, Yergazy Kenzhin, in an interview with Radio Azattyk, said that all the accusations against them are unfounded.
- This is an underground training ground, there are adits at a depth of one and a half kilometers and a kilometer. These are former test sites of the USSR, where there were underground nuclear explosions in the 1980s. It was called "the program for the use of nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes, the creation of cavities for the storage of petroleum products." Everything is mothballed there, that is, some work related to the release [of radiation] has not been there for decades, 30-40 years. Therefore, there is absolutely no release of radioactivity there,” Azattyk quotes the scientist.
In general, Kazakhstan can be suspected of some kind of leaks quite legitimately, since it is quite closely connected with nuclear energy. In the west of Kazakhstan, in the Aktobe region, there is a military town of Emba-5, where, according to some reports, underground nuclear explosions were also carried out. And what is there now in the mines is a big question, since until the middle of this year the Russian military patronized the city (now the process of withdrawing the Russians and the complete transfer of Emba-5 under the Kazakh leadership is underway). In addition, a nuclear waste bank is being built in Kazakhstan, which is said to be safe for the environment.
And in 2014, in the same West of Kazakhstan, a container with radioactive cesium-137 was lost. They searched for him for three days, and a certain taxi driver found him in a neighboring region, who at night saw a small container in a truck passing by. Official version loss - the bottom of the body that failed in the van for transportation, and other drivers found it and thought it was just a can - and took it for themselves.
20 November Roshydromet confirmed: at the end of September, extreme air pollution with the radioactive isotope ruthenium-106 was observed in the Urals, high - in Tatarstan, the Volga region and Rostov-on-Don. In samples of radioactive aerosols, the radioisotope Ru-106 was found (half-life 368.2 days).
On the same day, the Russian Greenpeace asked the prosecutor's office to check the Mayak plant. The organization refers to the data of Roshydromet. “The accidental release of ruthenium-106 at the Mayak plant may be associated with the vitrification of spent nuclear fuel. It is also possible for material containing ruthenium-106 to enter the furnace for melting metals, ”Greenpeace said.
Tuesday, November 21st Rosatom stated that the Mayak production association is not associated with air pollution. The department suggested that the leakage of the substance could have occurred due to a violation of the tightness of the fuel element cladding in nuclear reactor or in the radiochemical processing of nuclear fuel.
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Position of Greenpeace and experts
“Roshydromet has published the readings of its stations, but it is not the function of this department to figure out where the emission comes from,” said Rashid Alimov, head of the Greenpeace Russia energy program project. - Therefore, we are writing a request to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which, in turn, should involve Rostekhnadzor in order to sort out the situation.
According to Alimov, the purpose of the request is to check whether information about the accident was reported to the competent authorities, whether production was stopped and measures were taken to protect the population.
According to the ecologist, it is now impossible to draw final conclusions about what caused the release.
However, like other experts, Rashid Alimov names the Mayak production association as the first in the list of potential sources of pollution. The state enterprise produces components of nuclear weapons, stores and reprocesses spent nuclear fuel. Located in the closed city of Ozersk, Chelyabinsk Region, the enterprise is part of the state corporation Rosatom.
Versions
According to Rashid Alimov, the conclusions made by French researchers, as well as sources at the Mayak enterprise, indicate that the release could have occurred at the spent nuclear fuel vitrification plant.
The technology is used for the complete elimination of by-product radioactive waste and was invented in France. At high temperature and pressure in the furnace, radioactive liquid and phosphate glass are mixed. Radioactive transparent columns are obtained, which are packed in protective cases. According to Rashid Alimov, in 2001, a ruthenium release was recorded in France at just such a production site.
Loading a container for transporting spent nuclear fuel at the Mayak plant. Photo: Alexander Kondratyuk / RIA Novosti, 2010 Rashid Alimov voices other versions, however, he believes that the likelihood of such a scenario is minimal. “Theoretically, Russia produces ruthenium for medical needs in Dimitrovgrad (in the Ulyanovsk region) and Obninsk (in the Kaluga region), Alimov explains. — This may explain the pollution recorded in Volgograd and Tsimlyansk.
Other scenarios - though less likely - which experts call - a source of ruthenium-106 getting into the smelting furnace along with scrap metal. “The story when the radioactive source got into the furnace was recorded four years ago in Elektrostal,” the expert notes. - And the least likely options are the fall of a satellite and an accident at a nuclear power plant. But this would lead to the release of not only ruthenium-106, but also other radioactive substances.
Why was a radioactive cloud recorded in Europe? Rashid Alimov draws attention to the message of Roshydromet - it follows from it that there are only 22 stations in Russia that could record emissions. “In our opinion, this is not enough,” commented the expert.
According to Rashid Alimov, it is currently not possible to assess the health threat from the release.
“We don’t know where the highest concentrations were recorded, the scenario of how the cloud moved is not completely known,” he notes. “That’s why we contacted the prosecutor’s office.
About the risk of leakage
“The information about the level of pollution that appear in the media is such that there should be no health concerns,” he commented on the situation. Anatoly Gubin, head of laboratory mathematical analysis Radiation Effects of the Scientific and Technical Center for Radiation and Technical Safety and Hygiene. “However, the very fact of the detection of contamination suggests that there is not enough hope for the installation where spent fuel is handled.
“Those who were in close proximity to the release site could have received serious damage to health,” the physicist commented on the situation. Oleg Bodrov, head of the environmental organization "Southern Coast of the Gulf of Finland". - It is not a fact that they are informed that they were affected by the release, given the fact that we learned about the accident from French scientists, and not from authorized departments in Russia.
What is Europe afraid of?
The French magazine Le NovelObs cites the reasons why - despite the likely lack of consequences for Europe - the current state of emergency is extremely worrisome. Firstly, “having entrusted the report of the incident to the meteorological service” (Roshydromet), Russian nuclear scientists “went into denial” (as they once did after the Chernobyl disaster), and this cannot but excite their European partners. Since Rosatom denies any involvement in the leaks, this can mean one of two things: either the corporation does not control such incidents, or "or the country's authorities hide" the information.
"Either of these circumstances raises concerns," said Bruno Shareiron, director of the non-governmental Commission for the Search for Independent Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD), which was set up in France after the Chernobyl disaster.
“It is important that the origin of these releases be searched…From this point of view, the lack of information is worrying. If the origin of the releases is unknown, no radiation protection measures can be taken, while the doses received by workers or local residents could be such that they could not be ignored. If we are talking withholding information, the situation is even more problematic,” Shareiron wrote in a CRIIRAD report released Oct. 5.
In its latest communiqué, released on November 21, CRIIRAD analyzes the release report from Roshydromet.
“And without giving close answers (to emerging questions), the results (published by Roshydromet) raise new questions:
- Why is the concentration of a substance in the air (on the territory of Russia) at the same level as was found in Romania
- Why does the level of ruthenium-106 release into the soil, noted by stations located less than 40 km north and south of Mayak, reach a maximum of 330 Bq / m2 (this level was recorded in Metlino) - after all, this is from 100 to 1000 times less than as noted in the IRSN simulations (results released November 9).”
“Today, we are still in complete obscurity,” reports the Commission for the search for independent information on radioactivity.
The Commission also emphasizes that it has already applied to the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency with a demand to “break the silence and intervene”, since “absolute transparency is required” in the investigation of the emergency - “both on the part of the authorities, in particular Russian Federation, and from expert institutions.
It happened before
Mayak accidents in 1957 and 2007
In 1957, the “Kyshtym accident” occurred at Mayak, which caused radiation pollution over an area of over 20 thousand square kilometers. She became the first in the USSR radiation emergency technogenic nature: during the liquidation, 23 villages with a population of up to 12 thousand people were resettled, their houses, property and livestock were destroyed.
Ten years ago, in 2007, another emergency happened at Mayak. At plant No. 235, where spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed, a pipeline burst occurred. Up to 8 people received the maximum permissible doses of radiation. However, as the Ural media indicate, the company hid this information for more than a month.
The village of Muslyumovo affected by radiation as a result of the "Kyshtym accident". Photo: Alexander Kondratyuk / RIA Novosti, 2010 It is interesting that at that time information about the causes of the release was published by the same Nadezhda Kutepova, at that time the head of the Planet of Hopes organization. She was born in Ozersk, her father was the liquidator of the accident in 1957. In 2015, Kutepova's Planet of Hope organization was recognized as a foreign agent, she was accused of industrial espionage, and Kutepova received political asylum abroad.
Chernobyl: the USSR confessed under pressure from Europe
The largest nuclear accident occurred at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. The first reports of the accident in the Soviet media appeared only on April 28, and they were made under pressure, when worried Europeans demanded that the USSR explain the increase in background radiation. Experts from the Swedish nuclear power plant Forsmak were the first in the world to report pollution. Soviet publications publish detailed information about the accident after the May holidays.
Worked on the material: Alisa Kustikova, Alexandra Kopacheva, Vyacheslav Polovinko, Yuri Safronov
