Caesium-137 or approximately 44 μg/kg) of caesium-137 (and 950 to 1400 rads), they die within 33 days, while animals with half of that burden all survived for a year. Accidental ingestion of caesium-137 can be treated with Prussian blue, which binds to it chemically and reduces the biological half-life to 30 days. Caesium-134 and caesium-137 were released into the environment during nearly all nuclear weapon tests and some nuclear accidents, most notably the Chernobyl disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. As of 2005 and for the next few hundred years, caesium-137 is the principal source of radiation in the zone of
Windscale Piles There was a release to atmosphere of radioactive material that spread across the UK and Europe. The accident was rated a level 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The chimney filters were credited with maintaining partial containment and thus minimising the radioactive content of the smoke that poured from the chimney during the fire. This included a large quantity of tritium, but it proved to be a negligible radiological hazard compared with the other radionuclides. The fire released an estimated of iodine-131, of caesium-137, of polonium-210 and of xenon-133. Iodine-131, which may lead to thyroid cancer, made the most