Rain falling on Germany contains radioactive iodine from nuclear reprocessing
plants in Britain and France. After analysing the ratio of iodine-129 to the
naturally occurring iodine-127 in rainwater, Dieter Aumann and Gunter Krupp of
the University of Bonn concluded that iodine-129 is being discharged from
Sellafield in Cumbria and Cap de la Hague in Normandy and is carried by currents
into the North Sea. It then evaporates and is washed out by rain (Journal of
Environmental Radioactivity, vol 46, p 287). This pathway has not been
highlighted before. But the researchers believe the levels of contamination in
rainwater are too low to cause harm.
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