Missing Radioactive Capsule Sparks Urgent Health Alert In Western Australia (theguardian.com) 85
A tiny radioactive capsule with the potential to cause skin burns has gone missing as it was transported from a mine in Western Australia. The Guardian reports: Hazardous material experts are searching for the 8mm by 6mm capsule, which is believed to have fallen from a truck as it was traveling the 1,400km between a mine site north of Newman in the Pilbara and a depot in Perth. At an emergency press conference on Friday, the WA chief health officer, Andy Robertson, said the capsule, which is only 6mm by 8mm, emits a "reasonable" amount of radiation. [...] The radioactive gauges are often used in the mining industry. Health authorities said the amount of radiation exposure was comparable to receiving 10 X-rays in the space of an hour.
Robertson said the capsule was understood to have fallen from a truck during the 1,400km journey, after vibrations worked loose a bolt, and the capsule fell through the bolt hole. The Department of Emergency and Fire Services issued a health alert on Friday saying there was "radioactive substance risk in parts of the Pilbara, Midwest Gascoyne, Goldfields-Midlands and Perth Metropolitan regions." DFES country north chief superintendent David Gill said areas around the mine site, north of Newman, and the transport depot had unsuccessfully been searched. Drivers who had travelled along the Great Northern Highway between Newman and Perth were being asked to check their tyres in case the capsule had become stuck in them.
Robertson said the capsule was understood to have fallen from a truck during the 1,400km journey, after vibrations worked loose a bolt, and the capsule fell through the bolt hole. The Department of Emergency and Fire Services issued a health alert on Friday saying there was "radioactive substance risk in parts of the Pilbara, Midwest Gascoyne, Goldfields-Midlands and Perth Metropolitan regions." DFES country north chief superintendent David Gill said areas around the mine site, north of Newman, and the transport depot had unsuccessfully been searched. Drivers who had travelled along the Great Northern Highway between Newman and Perth were being asked to check their tyres in case the capsule had become stuck in them.
More details on what it was (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:More details on what it was (Score:5, Informative)
There's a better article from the ABC - https://www.abc.net.au/news/20... [abc.net.au]
The article states that it has a half life of 30 years, but doesn't list what the substance is. But it does include a picture.
Re:More details on what it was (Score:5, Informative)
Re:More details on what it was (Score:4, Interesting)
Not as uncommon as you'd think:
In 2012, Halliburton [theguardian.com] lost a radioactive rod used to identify oil and gas deposits' suitability for fracking in West Texas.
This rod was eventually located after it was widely reported, but it was 7 inches (178mm) long, and made of americium-241/beryllium. This is a radioactive needle in a sandy haystack.
Re:More details on what it was (Score:4, Interesting)
made of americium-241/beryllium
That would be a neutron source, the alphas from the Am-241 collide with the Beryllium and produce fast neutrons for use on neutron probes, they're used to measure water content in soil. That would be very difficult to find easily since neutrons are non-ionising so you can't just run any standard ionising-radiation detector over the area where you're searching.
Re: (Score:2)
I have no idea if you are correct or not but thank you for making slashdot a more interesting place today.
Re: (Score:2)
The outside case would have been lablelled.... (Score:2)
...but this source somehow fell out of its marked case.
Re: (Score:2)
Fun fact: They don't advise people to get near ... something that's so small that by the time you identify it, you're already pretty near.
Re:More details on what it was (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor... [bbc.co.uk] says it was Cs-137 and provides a comparison image.
Re: (Score:1)
Aside from the story seeming dubious... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh it happened alright. The press here in West Australia , and the govt departments, have been going haywire over it.
I would *guess* just driving back along the path with a geiger counter MIGHT work, but I'm no expert and have no idea if from a distance the signal can be made out over the general ambient radiation of the desert.
Caesium 137 has a shortish lifespan (Half life of about 30ish years) so it should be fairly noisy and radioactive. So maybe?
Re: Aside from the story seeming dubious... (Score:2)
Who designed the storage system to allow the capsule in question to be able to drop out of its container through a bolt hole? How big of a bolt hole, especially on a vehicle? The hole itself couldnâ(TM)t be more than 1/2 or even 3/4, and even that is unlikely unless it was a suspension component. This would imply that the container for the radioactive material was designed with perforations large enough to lose the cargo it was holding.
That seems like almost negligent levels of thought went into securi
Re: (Score:2)
This is getting me wondering as well. Storage systems for radioactive stuff tend to be very robust, and someone wanting to pull the pellet out would have to bypass a ton of safeguards, possess a number of keys, or at the minimum, open several well secured containers to get at the stuff inside, like the Mexican heist of a chunk of cobalt-60 which the thieves popped out of the container. Just losing a small canister like this seems like it can happen, but there are tons of safeguards in place with people wh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Delivery system designed by Amazon ?
When I see those Amazon delivery trucks in my 'hood they always got them side doors wide open, easy for stuff to fall out. Maybe it saves them 10 seconds per stop ?
Re: (Score:2)
Delivery system designed by Amazon ?
When I see those Amazon delivery trucks in my 'hood they always got them side doors wide open, easy for stuff to fall out. Maybe it saves them 10 seconds per stop ?
Ten seconds per stop over a dozen stops might mean the difference between getting to pee into a toilet and having to pee into a bottle.
Re: (Score:1)
I would hope they already tried that and every other obvious suggestion that might be mentioned in this thread before going public and causing a hysteria.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a long highway. You don't want someone picking a weird looking metal thingy out of their tire tread and dropping it in their pocket, so you make an announcement that if you see a weird looking metal thingy in your tire tread stay away from it and call this number.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
10 millicuries is a reasonable guess.
Exactly how much depends on what you are trying to measure.
There were and probably still are several at work, but I don't remember the source strength.
You can look up nuclear density gauges if you are curious.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They literally have fireman walking down the road in front of a fire engine with geiger counters.
Nearly all of the 1400kms except for maybe 10kms in Perth is two-lane blacktop so there is good picture on the ABC of a massive tailback behind them [it's the main route from Perth to the Iron Ore mines so there is a fair bit of traffic on it].
Radioactive Kangaroo Super Hero (Score:5, Funny)
Lets see whether Marvel or DC make a new worthless hero for us.
Re: Radioactive Kangaroo Super Hero (Score:2)
That was similar to my first thought about this. A nuclear Kangaroo Jack.
I believe there is a high likelihood that someone will now make an indie film with a radioactive kangaroo. Or better yet, Koala. He'll tear your limbs off and laugh while doing it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Still no picture? (Score:2)
I've read like three articles on this thing and not one of them has enough sense to include a picture.
Re: (Score:3)
An earlier version [abc.net.au] of the article had a comparison image, not sure why it's been chopped from the updated article.
Good luck finding that.
Re: (Score:2)
You mean a picture of a chunk of metal that looks like a button cell battery? It doesn't make for a compelling picture.
Re: (Score:2)
I've read like three articles on this thing and not one of them has enough sense to include a picture.
The BBC, as usual, did a good of describing what happened and has a fantastic picture of a similar item and its size compared to a coin [bbc.com].
Re: (Score:2)
A problem is that they contain a powder, would it be cracked on the road this powder would spread and make an even more nasty mess.
Re: (Score:2)
Because if you're close enough to see it, you're already getting a dangerous dose. They don't want people out driving the roads trying to find it—they will assay the route (all 1400km of it) and locate it eventually.
Then will be the fun bit of digging out a pile of dirt, dumping it in barrels, and burying it all for a long time.
Re: (Score:2)
But they do, apparently, want people peering at their tire (tyre) treads to see if they can find it there.
Australia... (Score:4, Funny)
...where everything kills you.
Re: (Score:1)
You used the wrong "your" there, smart guy.
Re: (Score:1)
i can pronounce aluminium and solder ...
hey lets to further - i can pronounce autumn.
Re: (Score:2)
" i can pronounce autumn. "
Isn't it still summer down there?
Of course they don't have winter in Oz.
And they can't spell labour or honour.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not Australian.
It's "you're", not "your".
But thanks for opening your mouth, to remove all doubt.
Regulations? (Score:2)
I assume there are regulations for the transport of radioactive material, and they were all broken?
Re: Regulations? (Score:2)
Most likely. Regulations notwithstanding, common sense was lacking as well.
Re: (Score:2)
No. They weren't all broken. Likely one of them was broken, and likely a regulation in question was something vague such as "ensure radioactive elements are secured during transport".
This isn't a nuclear bomb, nor is it some kind of extremely hazardous waste. About the only thing you need to handle this kind of thing is an ISO 9001 certificate, a permit for having the material on you, and a radiation sticker on the back of your car.
I have to deal with bringing these things on site when it comes time to repl
Re: (Score:3)
It's Rio Tinto. They could, oh, I dunno, blow up a 40,000 year old historical site and a few months later no one would even question them about it.
The mining companies own the government out here. Coal. Gas. Iron. They fund both sides to get what they want.
Re: (Score:2)
No it wasn't. It was a licensed specialist contractor who lost it nothing to do with Rio. Not Rio's Fault but the usual anti-mining mob are always eager to nail them.
Comparisons fail (Score:2)
the amount of radiation exposure was comparable to receiving 10 X-rays in the space of an hour
The amount of radiation if you hold it in your hand for an hour? If you swallow it? If you keep it in the trunk to drop it off at Lost and Found?
I understand writer tries to convey some tangible sense of how radioactive the pebble actually is, but how they did that doesn't make much sense. Apples and oranges.
Re: (Score:3)
Standing 1m away is equivalent to 17 x-rays an hour, as per TFA: https://www.abc.net.au/news/20... [abc.net.au]
Holding it or keeping it on your person would result in burns and, after a little bit of time, acute radiation sickness. It's hot with a H. Also, fun to remember, caesium-137 becomes water soluble, but thankfully it isn't likely to rain before they find it.
And no, don't swallow it. Swallow that spicyboi and you're, as we're wont to say here in Australia, fucking fucked.
Re:Comparisons fail (Score:4, Insightful)
Standing 1m away is equivalent to 17 x-rays an hour
From TFA: “If you were to stand 1 metre [away] you would be receiving about the equivalent of 17 chest x-rays,” Ms Steen said.
If you were to stand 1 metre away for how long? The language being used is very poor. If they mean "if you stand a 1 metre away for an hour, you would receive the equivalent of 17 chest X-rays", that would be how to phrase it. Or "it emits 17 times the radiation that a chest X-ray does", which would totally eliminate the time portion of the equation. But as written, it's devoid of informational value.
Re: (Score:3)
Ah, yeah. Got this one conflated with an earlier piece: https://www.abc.net.au/news/20... [abc.net.au]
Given how little they have wanted to say about it, I don't hold much hope of any reasonable details out of Rio Tinto. They kinda own the state government and get away with
Re: (Score:2)
Read the news. It was a contractor Rio engaged who promptly fucked up. Not Rio.
Nazis hired contractors to produce Zyklon B... (Score:2)
Both were found guilty for the results of its use.
When there is a fuckup it doesn't matter if one is a contractor who fucked up or one hires a contractor who fucks up - the guilt and responsibility is held by the hired and the hirer both.
E.g. If your neighbor hires a caterer whose gas cooker explodes and burns YOUR house down, I'm pretty certain you'll hold both of them accountable.
Re: (Score:2)
Which would be quite a different thing because if one were to receive 17 chest X-rays in an hour, they would have actually been exposed to X-rays for only a few seconds - but the exposure during those few seconds would be much more than the exposure to this pellet from one meter away for the same few seconds.
How was this being transported? (Score:5, Insightful)
If this material is so dangerous, why does it sound like it was just left rolling around loose in the the bed of the truck like a random stone from a load of dirt?
Re: How was this being transported? (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think it's dangerous if it fell off the truck in the Outback. However, if someone thinks its a toy and runs around with it in their pocket, they will know soon enough.
Also, the burns mentioned in the article are only obvious symptoms of radiation exposure, which, since it's a small pebble, will only cause local damage. Worse than the short-term burn mark is the cells damage causing cancer.
Anyone remember the amounts of uranium and plutonium that went missing after the USSR fell apart? Now that I wou
Re:How was this being transported? (Score:5, Interesting)
There were undoubtedly safety protocols upon safety protocols, deemed by some end user to be too cumbersome and inconvenient for him to follow.
At 6mm x 8mm, the pellet is half the width of a dime. Perhaps they should've chained a piece of lumber to the rod like a borrowed restroom key.
Re: (Score:1)
From the article it sounds like it was in a shielded container that was bolted to the truck. The bolt came out and it fell out of the container through the bolt hole. Bad design but they were at least trying to do the right thing.
"sparks"? (Score:2)
Probably could have chosen the title wording better...
Hot steaming crater (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Unless it would melt a hot steaming crater in the road I doubt they would ever find it.
The good thing about radiation in the middle of frigging nowhere is that they aren't looking for an 8mmx6mm capsule, they are looking for a several meter wide and long area in which their dosimeter readings spike.
It's not the first time such a thing was lost and wouldn't be the first time it were found again.
Hopefully we don't repeat history (Score:5, Interesting)
A lost caesium-137 capsule ended up in domestic housing. How the devil does the human race prevent this from happening again? Perhaps we use rugged containers for things that might harm us, or did someone run the numbers and decide three-five deaths were not too expensive compared to proper controls?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3)
Dunno why the capsule was so small. We used similar sources in geophysical logging, and they were embedded in a larger carrier (2.5" diameter, 4" length) and stored in a large lead "pig" (bolted to the deck, with the bolts not entering the storage wells) during transport. Why they were carrying such a small capsule loose I can't imagine.
More information (Score:5, Informative)
From the 30-year half-life and the current technology used, we can be pretty certain that it is a Cs137 source. They also stipulate that the source emits radiation comparable to 10 X-rays. This for a person at 1 m from the source for an hour. This is an indication for the activity of the source which is called Air KERMA rate (which is the current SI unit for apparent activity). 1 X-ray foto is roughly 0.001 mSv (milliSievert) so we have an Air Kerma Rate of 0.01mSv/hr. Comparing this to the amount of radiation received over a year just by walking on this earth (2.4mSv/yr) it is pretty low. The only issue could be to have it near you for a long length of time and very close (1/r^2 -law: i.e. the deposited radiation decreases with the distance following an inverse square law). So no picking up and putting in your pocket. The energy of the gamma rays is relatively high (careful the energy of the gamma-ray does not relate to the dose delivered). This is very reminiscent of the Kramatorsk incident where a comparable lost source was incorporated in the walls of a building. http://www.ntc.kiev.ua/downloa... [ntc.kiev.ua]
Yes IAAMP (I Am A Medical Physicist)
All the fuss because it's radioactive. (Score:2)
Instant weight loss tablet (Score:2)
Swallow that for instant weight loss with no work required of you⦠ever again!
Stay at least 5 meters away (Score:3)
One of TFAs says to stay at least 5 meters away if you see it, but who's gonna see that at 5 meters in the dirt or rocks of the desert where it probably tumbled after it fell?
Conclusion? From now on, just keep driving through that area and don't stop unless you know what you're doing. They're going to have to grid search a significant distance either side of the highway with Geiger counters. It could be in the belly of some unfortunately curious dingo, miles from the scene by now.
Re: (Score:2)
One of TFAs says to stay at least 5 meters away if you see it, but who's gonna see that at 5 meters
Duh! *If* you think you see it, quickly take a photo, and then move back.
At 5m, it is safe indefinitely. One metre for a few minutes would be insignificant, but under your bed might kill you in the long term.
Under the boss' chair (Score:2)
More details here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0... [nytimes.com]
The whole "robust device came apart in transit then a tiny piece fell though a nearly as tiny hole" sounds far more improbable than a smashed device was placed in the box in the first place and that the source is being used for a malicious purpose.
Goiania accident (Score:2)
In Brazil, back in 87, some irresponsible personnel from a hospital left a radiotherapy machine that contained Cs-137 material in a abandoned hospital, people entered the place to take stuff to sell, broke apart the machine and when they saw a bright blue substance they thought it was pretty and started playing with it, some of the victims spread the powder on their body and an child ate the stuff, four people died and were buried in lead caskets and a bunch more from the family got sick.
more infor here htt [wikipedia.org]
Pretty radioactive--find with radiation sensor? (Score:2)
This thing is pretty radioactive, as an article says, about 10 X-rays worth of dose per hour at 1m distance.
I think there are radiation sensors that can pick this up. Just load one onto a truck driving the same route, have it record radiation dose and GPS position, and then just read it out at the end of the trip.
Do this several times and you'll probably pick it up, or so it seems to me---I really do think we have sensors up to the task, though maybe not integrated with a GPS and a recorder.
Re: (Score:2)
They literally have two firemen walking in front of a Fire engine on the road. [Fireman here have Hazmat responsibility].
PS the daytime temps up there are in the high 30's degrees Centigrade with sun that will flay the skin off your back.
Re: (Score:2)
Great, so for fear of what is probably a mild risk of exposure to radiation, they're continuously irradiating two firemen with a lot of harmful heat?
Balance the risks here folks!
--PeterM