They are small clumps of waste containing uranium and radium: embedded in asphalt they form small but more intense radioactive areas. Toxic gas also escapes at breakpoints. Inspector Chance has tracked down a Lower Austrian – the ‘Krone’ has the story and his investigative evidence.
The waste product from fertilizer production is mixed with the asphalt to save costs. In other words: the residual material mixed with radiation was apparently “discarded” with little effort by a company as part of a road renovation.
Suddenly the dosimeter went off – in the middle of the city. Major unrest: what causes a dangerous dose of radioactive radiation to emerge from underground? The intensity was so high that the town hall had lead plates placed on the mysterious radiation point. After excavating the site, the surprise came: the radioactivity came from a single medium-sized grain: phosphogypsum, which had apparently slipped through the crusher and had full radiation power.
The New Year’s Eve walk was the cause of the explosion on New Year’s Day
This happened four years ago in Thuringia, Germany, and grass grew over the asphalt incident. After all, the building material is produced by financially strong producer groups, demand is high, a lot of research is done and new things are rarely questioned.
Despite their high profile, contamination was not yet a problem in this country. Until the day when a Lower Austrian discovered by chance the dangerous molecular decay in the asphalt after New Year’s Eve.
The guest at a party in Göllersdorf in the Hollabrunn district noticed that he accidentally still had his company’s dosimeter with him. After a tour of the village to watch fireworks, the disillusionment of the fun New Year followed with a bang: in the Geiger counter’s memory analysis, radiation levels skyrocketed at two points in time.
“We couldn’t explain it. So we checked and discovered elevated readings in other places as well. “Especially where there was new asphalt after damage,” the man repeats his doubts. After the “Krone” investigated the similar incident in Thuringia, the suspicion was confirmed that phosphogypsum could also “disappear” in the asphalt here.
Asphalt manufacturers keep the mixing ratios of their products secret
In any case, the fact is: officially 70,000 tons of phosphogypsum are imported annually. Even a look at an online directory of purchasing companies does not lead to the end users.
The clumping increases radiation enormously, contrary to opinion
The same applies to the responsible state agencies, representatives of the business community or experts in the field of road construction: reference was made to the implementing companies – these in turn to their suppliers. As a result of numerous investigations, detailed ‘asphalt recipes’ are internally classified information.
Don’t worry across the pond: you can mix things up in Florida
In view of the increasing production of asphalt mixtures in Austria of about seven million tons per year, the citizen of Göllersdorf fears that “American conditions” will at some point flood the Atlantic Ocean: in Florida, despite numerous citizen protests, the addition of Chlorine gypsum was approved for the entire state last April.
Source: Krone
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