Helen ApSimon founding member and Chairman of the European Association for the Science of Air Pollution. ApSimon is well known for her research into the transport of radioactivity from the Chernobyl disaster. In the immediate aftermath, Russia issued a media blackout and ApSimon was one of few European scientists to detect rising radiation levels. She modelled the nuclear fallout, calculating Chernobyl released 15 - 20 megacuries of Iodine-131 and 1 - 2 megacuries of caesium-137. During the first few weeks after the disaster, ApSimon calculated the radioactive plum covered Scandinavia and the North coast of Europe. She travelled to Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia
Caesium chloride give the poorly soluble double salt, e.g.: Treatment of the double salt with hydrogen sulfide gives CsCl: High-purity CsCl is also produced from recrystallized (and ) by thermal decomposition: Only about 20 tonnes of caesium compounds, with a major contribution from CsCl, were being produced annually around the 1970s and 2000s worldwide. Caesium chloride enriched with caesium-137 for radiation therapy applications is produced at a single facility Mayak in the Ural Region of Russia and is sold internationally through a UK dealer. The salt is synthesized at 200 °C because of its hygroscopic nature and sealed in a thimble-shaped steel