Lake Karachay The lake accumulated some 4.44 exabecquerels (EBq) of radioactivity over less than one square mile of water, including 3.6 EBq of caesium-137 and 0.74 EBq of strontium-90. For comparison, the Chernobyl disaster released 0.085 EBq of caesium-137, a much smaller amount and over thousands of square miles. (The total Chernobyl release is estimated between 5 to 12 EBq of radioactivity, however essentially only caesium-134/137 [and to a lesser extent, strontium-90] contribute to land contamination because the rest is too short-lived). The sediment of the lake bed is estimated to be composed almost entirely of high level radioactive waste deposits to
Isotopes of caesium only long after the nuclear explosion is over. The combined yield of Cs and Cs is given as 6.7896%. The proportion between the two will change with continued neutron irradiation. Cs also captures neutrons with a cross section of 140 barns, becoming long-lived radioactive Cs. Caesium-134 undergoes beta decay (β), producing Ba 134 directly and emitting on average 2.23 gamma ray photons (mean energy 0.698 MeV). Caesium-135 is a mildly radioactive isotope of caesium with a half-life of 2.3 million years, decaying, via emission of a low-energy beta particle, into the stable isotope barium-135. Caesium-135 is one of the 7