Environmental impact of nuclear power materials decay, they release particles that can damage the body and lead to cancer, particularly cesium-137 and iodine-131. In the Chernobyl disaster, releases of cesium-137 contaminated land. Some communities, including the entire city of Pripyat, were abandoned permanently. One news source reported that thousands of people who drank milk contaminated with radioactive iodine developed thyroid cancer. The exclusion zone (approx. 30 km radius around Chernobyl) may have significantly elevated levels of radiation, which is now predominantly due to the decay of cesium-137, for around 10 half-lives of that isotope, which is approximately for 300 years. Due to the bioaccumulation of
On-Line Isotope Mass Separator more than 60 physics experiments are active there. Radioactive nuclei are produced at ISOLDE by impinging a high energy beam of protons on a stationary target. There are a number of target materials depending on the desired final species. Collisions between the proton beam and the target produce a variety of fragments, which are extracted and filtered to yield the desired isotope. The time required for extraction places a lower limit on the half life of isotopes which can be produced by this method. Once extracted, the isotopes are directed either to one of several detectors, an isotope harvesting area,