Two Strontium containing Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, or RTGs, used to power navigation beacons and lighthouses were found literally ripped to pieces by unknown vandals during regular checks by the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet in the area of the Kola Peninsula last week. The damage was so severe that Murmansk Regional officials designated the incident as a "radioactive accident."
It is assumed by local authorities that the vandals were scavenging for valuable metals, including stainless steel, lead and aluminium, all of which could easily be dumped on the scrap metal market in Murmansk. But the vandals also took with them the depleted uranium casing, which is used to protect the RTG's strontium-90 cores.
The strontium-90 cores—which have a half life of 26.5 years— were left at the sites of the navigation devices. They are highly radioactive—emitting some 1000 roentgens per hour—and local police officials and officials from the Murmansk Regional Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in interviews with Bellona Web that the suspects could well be dead or seriously ill.
