Reversemode

The war that began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to a series of unprecedented nuclear-related situations. During the first 48 hours, Chernobyl—a symbol of the deep-seated fear of nuclear disaster, especially within Europe—was taken by Russian troops. This was accompanied by reports of  radiation spikes, various plots involving dirty bombs and nuclear materials, and Russian soldiers allegedly killed by acute radiation syndrome. In the end, all of it was proven to be as fictitious as the reported radiation levels. We should view these mutual accusations between Ukraine and Russia as part of the information war, which likely didn’t come as a complete surprise to those in the know. For instance, in an insightful piece Politico published documenting the 'first-ever oral history of how top U.S. and Western officials saw the warning signs of a European land war,' John Kirby stated the following: Without time to recover from the shock caused by the events ...

In December 2024, two events —drone sightings in the US and Israel’s strike on Syria’s weapon depots— were followed by orchestrated reports of detected radiation spikes. Some media outlets took these dubious reports (with millions of views) that originated from social media , and published pieces based on them. In one of these cases, the actors behind the disinformation campaign exploited a real-time radiation map, which is maintained by a private company  that manufactures personal dosimeters, to sustain the narrative. Kim Zetter has recently published " Anatomy of a Nuclear Scare ", an article that covers this issue. This trend does not come as a surprise, as radioactivity is one of those few things that can collectively trigger significant levels of societal anxiety and emotional, rather than rational, response, which is often disproportionate to the actual physical risks it poses. This radiation fear has been shaped during years by a mix of cultural, historical, and media...