In the air over Alaska discovered a mysterious radioactive isotope

At an altitude of seven kilometers near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, an aerosol particle containing some enriched uranium was found. This is stated in the study of an international scientific group from the United States and Norway, published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

The paper emphasizes that for twenty years of observations, the researchers first discovered in the atmosphere a particle with a high uranium isotope content U-235. The bulk of aerosol particles is a product of combustion of heavy fuel.
The analysis of wind trajectories and models of dispersion of air particles show that this mass of particles, presumably, originated in one of the countries of Asia: China, North Korea or Japan.
Scientists emphasize that particles containing the isotope U-235, “definitely not from a natural source.” At the same time, researchers can not determine the origin of these air masses.
“This scientific work was published because we would like to find out if someone who knows more about uranium than we can determine the source of the particle,” said one of the authors of the work, a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States Dan Murphy.