Huge but local radioactive peak close to Warneton, Belgium - anyone with more info?

[Basque Seeker]

On the afternoon of August 9th 2023 the European radioactive monitoring portal:

Radiological Maps - European Commission

The Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) group of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)

remap.jrc.ec.europa.eu

did show a huge (>2.2*10^6 nSv/h) but local radioactive peak in the vicinity of Warneton, Wallonia, Belgium.

Hoping that people there are safe!

At least some others detectors located in the nearby area (Lille, Poperinge, etc.) didn't show any concerning pattern at that time as per the same monitoring portal.

Anyone knows what could have caused that? I couldn't find any nuclear power plant close enough that could explain this through some kind of incident.

 

[Basque Seeker]

My bad, I thought the measurement was ~2.2 Sv/h, but it was ~2.2 mSv/h. Extremely much safer than what I initially thought.

The peak was indeed remarkable, but it should be little worry if I understand the hazard levels correctly.

 

[Possibility of Being]

Indeed, even if looking alarming, still far from posing any health risk. Notice that none of the nearby located stations detected any peak. That particular station seems to be located somewhere close to the N58 highway, branching there. Perhaps there was a truck carrying some radioactive stuff (hospital waste would be enough, I think) that got stuck or parked there for a lunch break. Just one possibility. :)

There is a big logistic center over there which could support my hypothesis of a truck parking.

 

[Alejo]

May not be related at all, but I did catch this today

https://twitter.com/x/status/1688734905164087296

https://twitter.com/x/status/1688672896728682496

From their website:

A X1.5 flare (R3-Strong) occurred on 7 August, 2023 from recently departed Region 3386. The R3 event peaked at 2046 UTC (4:46 pm EDT) on 7 Aug and likely caused HF radio communication degradation or completed loss on the sunlit side of Earth during the flare's duration. Please continue to visit our SWPC website for the latest information and updated.

So apparently we got hit by a strong solar flare which had effects and we found out after.

 

[Mytja]

May not be related at all, but I did catch this today

https://twitter.com/x/status/1688734905164087296

https://twitter.com/x/status/1688672896728682496

From their website:

So apparently we got hit by a strong solar flare which had effects and we found out after.

It seems highly improbable that a solar flare would produce a spike in just one radiation monitoring station in the area where there are several of them functioning normally, FWIW.

 

[Alejo]

It seems highly improbable that a solar flare would produce a spike in just one radiation monitoring station in the area where there are several of them functioning normally, FWIW.

No, I hear you, I just found it curious, but I don't know enough to draw the relationship.

 

[Basque Seeker]

On Friday 8th september at 00:00 UTC a high peak of 2 Sv/h was measured at Lochinver, Scotland.

Radiological Maps - European Commission

The Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring (REM) group of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)

remap.jrc.ec.europa.eu

Again, this was a local, and short-time measurement, no other nearby stations measured anything worrisome, so just FYI.