Tiny radioactive capsule goes missing in Western Australia

[Scott]

An urgent search is under way in Western Australia after a tiny capsule containing a radioactive substance went missing.

The casing contains a small quantity of radioactive Caesium-137, which could cause serious illness if touched.

It was lost between the town of Newman and the city of Perth in mid-January - a distance of roughly 1,400km (870 miles).

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64429375

 

[Tug]

The dingo ate the capsule 

[Thomas KH]

Scary but also very impressive, the catastrophic consequences of that small capsule. They probably sealed off the roads and have half of the army sweeping all 1,400 km with a Geiger counter.

 

The havoc our species can wreak is a monumental achievement in itself.

[Tropposurfer]

8 hours ago, Tug said:

The dingo ate the capsule 

No way ... Chamberlain did it ????

[Tropposurfer]

Ahhh ... note to self; Don't visit the Pilbara any time soon.

[Aussieroaming]

All of these sites have nominated Radiation Safety Officers and that radiation source should have been handed to the transport company by the nominated RSO in a "safe to transport" state, I.e. the source in the locked position within the meter. The excuse given, which blames the transport contractor and a "loose bolt" is total nonsense.

Edited January 28, 2023 by metisdead
Extra spacing removed.

[kwonitoy]

Unless you put it your pocket it's not going to hurt anyone.

 

The 8mm by 6mm capsule is a 19-becquerel caesium 137 ceramic source, commonly used in radiation gauges, and was supposed to be contained in a secure device which had been “damaged” on a truck which travelled from the mine site north of Newman in the Pilbara to a depot in Perth.

 

The main problem is caesium has quite a long half-life of 30 years

 

These sources are used to show the level of material in a mining storage silo,

 

Having been an industrial radiographer for 40 years, yes these get lost occasially, people are human.

Don't know of any in Canada at least that were never found.

Someone is driving every inch of the route very slowly with a scintillometer, a very sensitive Geiger-Mueller detector.

I've done it myself.

[bendejo]

20 hours ago, Tug said:

The dingo ate the capsule 

Atomic dog?

 

 

[kwonitoy]

7 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

Unless you put it your pocket it's not going to hurt anyone.

 

The 8mm by 6mm capsule is a 19-becquerel caesium 137 ceramic source, commonly used in radiation gauges, and was supposed to be contained in a secure device which had been “damaged” on a truck which travelled from the mine site north of Newman in the Pilbara to a depot in Perth.

 

The main problem is caesium has quite a long half-life of 30 years

 

These sources are used to show the level of material in a mining storage silo,

 

Having been an industrial radiographer for 40 years, yes these get lost occasially, people are human.

Don't know of any in Canada at least that were never found.

Someone is driving every inch of the route very slowly with a scintillometer, a very sensitive Geiger-Mueller detector.

I've done it myself.

Convert Becquerel to Curie

Please provide values below to convert becquerel [Bq] to curie [Ci], or vice versa.

From:becquerel

To:curie

     

Convert Becquerel to Curie

Please provide values below to convert becquerel [Bq] to curie [Ci], or vice versa.

From:		becquerel
To:		curie

Result: 19 becquerel = 5.135135135E-10 curie

Result: 19 becquerel = 5.135135135E-10 curie

 

19 Becquerel = .0000000005135135 Curie

 

You probably could put in your pocket

[rabas]

4 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

Convert Becquerel to Curie

Please provide values below to convert becquerel [Bq] to curie [Ci], or vice versa.

From:becquerel

To:curie

     

Convert Becquerel to Curie

Please provide values below to convert becquerel [Bq] to curie [Ci], or vice versa.

From:		becquerel
To:		curie

Result: 19 becquerel = 5.135135135E-10 curie

Result: 19 becquerel = 5.135135135E-10 curie

 

19 Becquerel = .0000000005135135 Curie

 

You probably could put in your pocket

I was wondering the same.  I think the capsule is 19 giga-becquerel or 1.9x10¹⁰ becquerels wiki. That's equivalent to 0.51 curies and would be a danger to some one who picked it up and kept it close for a significant time.

 

Global headline news seems to be an overreaction.  Several years ago Thailand lost track of the source of a radiation therapy machine abandoned in a junkyard. That would have been significantly more radioactive.  Only made the Bangkok Post.

 

[vandeventer]

On 1/28/2023 at 6:41 AM, Tug said:

The dingo ate the capsule 

Good one Tug, the area between those two cities is so vast that it will never be found, so yes we can say the dingo ate it.

[JayClay]

2 hours ago, rabas said:

Global headline news seems to be an overreaction.  Several years ago Thailand lost track of the source of a radiation therapy machine abandoned in a junkyard. That would have been significantly more radioactive.  Only made the Bangkok Post

Or maybe the Thai media under reacted?

[moogradod]

9 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

.......................

You probably could put in your pocket

According to a Swiss Newspaper, the danger begins already at a distance from under 5m so to keep it in the pocket would maybe not a very bright idea.

 

Furthermore it is suspected that the tiny capsule may have been picked up by the profile of a tyre and transferred to another part of Australia which was not on the known route. Automobilists have been instructed to investigate their tyres.

[ballpoint]

They're now reporting the true activity of the source is indeed 19 gigabecquerel.

 

"Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson said the small silver cylinder was a 19-gigabecquerel caesium 137 ceramic source commonly used in radiation gauges.

“That may not mean a lot to people but probably more concerning is that it does emit a reasonable amount of radiation,” he said.

Dr Robertson said the unit emits about two millisieverts of radiation per hour, which is the equivalent of having 10 x-rays in an hour".

 

To compare, the maximum dose rate permitted for radiation classified workers in Australia is 20 millisieverts per year. 

 

Outback hunt for lost radioactive capsule - Australian Associated Press (aap.com.au)

[kwonitoy]

11 hours ago, rabas said:

I was wondering the same.  I think the capsule is 19 giga-becquerel or 1.9x10¹⁰ becquerels wiki. That's equivalent to 0.51 curies and would be a danger to some one who picked it up and kept it close for a significant time.

 

Global headline news seems to be an overreaction.  Several years ago Thailand lost track of the source of a radiation therapy machine abandoned in a junkyard. That would have been significantly more radioactive.  Only made the Bangkok Post.

 

I remember that incident, I was working in Thailand at the time.

Hospital threw away a canister containing a cobalt 60 source used in cancer treatments

Very heavy due to the shielding so the scrap yard was trying to dismantle it, I believe 2 people died because of that.

[kwonitoy]

6 hours ago, moogradod said:

According to a Swiss Newspaper, the danger begins already at a distance from under 5m so to keep it in the pocket would maybe not a very bright idea.

 

Furthermore it is suspected that the tiny capsule may have been picked up by the profile of a tyre and transferred to another part of Australia which was not on the known route. Automobilists have been instructed to investigate their tyres.

19 becquerels you could put in your pocket

19 Giga becquerels you shouldn't  ( Sarcasm intended)

 

There is an inverse square formula for exposure activity

If your getting say 1000 MR at 6m distance if you cut the distance in half you double the rate

3.0M = 2000 MR/HR

1.5M = 4000MR/HR

.75M = 8000MR/HR

.375M = 16000MR/HR

 

If it's .50 curie, 5 meters is completely safe. But when I do it I have a survey meter (GM detector) with me and I know where the source is.

That's the crux of it.

They don't know where it is. 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 1/28/2023 at 6:40 PM, Thomas KH said:

Scary but also very impressive, the catastrophic consequences of that small capsule. They probably sealed off the roads and have half of the army sweeping all 1,400 km with a Geiger counter.

 

The havoc our species can wreak is a monumental achievement in itself.

Perhaps relevant is my experience in a hospital that used radiation as a treatment. Despite the amount of radiation the actual device emitted being very small, the regulations for using it were draconian. Seems the authorities are quite paranoid when it comes to anything with "radiation" in the name.

We used to joke that we'd get more radiation from a long distance flight than from the device.

[Thomas KH]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Perhaps relevant is my experience in a hospital that used radiation as a treatment. Despite the amount of radiation the actual device emitted being very small, the regulations for using it were draconian. Seems the authorities are quite paranoid when it comes to anything with "radiation" in the name.

We used to joke that we'd get more radiation from a long distance flight than from the device.

Training to become a radiologist must be one of the most demanding work in medicine. You're not just a doctor but also a nuclear scientist.

 

 

[bangon04]

15 hours ago, moogradod said:

According to a Swiss Newspaper, the danger begins already at a distance from under 5m so to keep it in the pocket would maybe not a very bright idea.

 

Furthermore it is suspected that the tiny capsule may have been picked up by the profile of a tyre and transferred to another part of Australia which was not on the known route. Automobilists have been instructed to investigate their tyres.

investigate their tyres from a distance of at least 5m........

[Bert got kinky]

21 hours ago, rabas said:

I was wondering the same.  I think the capsule is 19 giga-becquerel or 1.9x10¹⁰ becquerels wiki. That's equivalent to 0.51 curies and would be a danger to some one who picked it up and kept it close for a significant time.

 

Global headline news seems to be an overreaction.  Several years ago Thailand lost track of the source of a radiation therapy machine abandoned in a junkyard. That would have been significantly more radioactive.  Only made the Bangkok Post.

 

 

18 hours ago, JayClay said:

Or maybe the Thai media under reacted?

 

It was not only the Bangkok Post running the story in Thailand and the Thai media certainly did not under react on the incident.

It was reported quite quite extensively by the Thai press, by both Thai and English language newspapers.

I was living here at the time, so I don't know if or how this was reported by the international press.

However, it does have it's own Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samut_Prakan_radiation_accident, which actually states 'The accident became a subject of intense news coverage'.

 

 

[rabas]

9 minutes ago, Bert got kinky said:

 

 

It was not only the Bangkok Post running the story in Thailand and the Thai media certainly did not under react on the incident.

It was reported quite quite extensively by the Thai press, by both Thai and English language newspapers.

I was living here at the time, so I don't know if or how this was reported by the international press.

However, it does have it's own Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samut_Prakan_radiation_accident, which actually states 'The accident became a subject of intense news coverage'.

 

You're right, I only remembered the BP article.

 

That source was 15.7 TeraBecquerel  (420 Curies), 1000x times stronger that the lost Australian source. Three dead and many more suffered serious radiation poisoning.   

 

The source's initial radioactivity when new was 196 TBq, 10000x stronger than the Australian source. It was replaced because it had decayed to 10% its original strength.

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by rabas

[xtrnuno41]

Of course casing was not there and you decide it to put it just like that in a truck.

6x8 mm ! There is a word for those people involved, but i cant say, as it would be deleted.