In Australia, a fatal capsule with radiation was lost: how it happened

In Australia, a radioactive capsule with cesium-137 fell from a truck. The authorities have already started a search for her, but admitted that everything may turn out to be unsuccessful.

He writes about it edition Guardian.

The 8mm by 6mm capsule — a 19 gigabecquerel ceramic source of cesium-137, commonly used in radiation sensors — fell from a protected device, a pressure gauge, on a truck traveling from a mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region to a warehouse in the state capital of Perth .

According to the investigation, the bolt securing the lead pressure gauge containing the capsule fell out sometime during the trip and the capsule fell through the hole left by the missing bolt.

“There is a possibility that we will not be able to find (the capsule). It is possible,” the management of the rescue service of Western Australia admitted.

The state Department of Fire and Emergency Services has already deployed search teams with radiation detection devices and metal detectors along critical sections of the truck’s route, including densely populated areas. The search is complicated by the fact that the total distance traveled by the truck from the mine to Perth is approximately 1,400 km.

Certificate:

Cesium-137 (half-life of 30 years) is an artificial nuclide, a component of radioactive fallout. This nuclide is available in large quantities from the processing of nuclear reactor fuel elements and is used in cobalt 60 accumulation sites to produce encapsulated energy sources. Cesium enters the human body and begins to irradiate it from the inside. Cesium has a number of radioactive forms.

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