Cesium-137 caused a deadly housing scandal #cesium137 #kramatorsk #radiation

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]In the late 1970s, a capsule with radioactive cesium 137 was lost in a quarry near Donetsk. They searched for it, failed to find it, and eventually just wrote it off. But, the capsule had fallen into a pile of crushed stone.

[00:00:11]That stone was later sent to a concrete factory and used to make wall panels for a new apartment building in Kramatorsk.

[00:00:16]The cesium capsule ended up inside the wall of apartment 85, [music] right next to the children's room. It was emitting about 1,800 roentgens per year, thousands of times above the safe limit.

[00:00:26]In 1980, the first family moved in. A year later, their 18-year-old daughter, who slept by that wall, died of leukemia. Then her 16-year-old brother died. Later, their mother died, too. The apartment was cleaned and given to new tenants. Years later, in 1987, their son also died of leukemia and his younger brother became seriously ill. The father knew the apartment's history and demanded an inspection. Only after 2 years of pressure did officials check the wall. They finally found the radiation source. The building was evacuated, the contaminated piece of wall was cut out, and the residents were later allowed back. And to this day, that building is still residential.