Radioactive Caesium-137 found in smelting works - factories sealed off

[snoop1130]

Radiation experts checking Kabin Buri foundry

 

 

Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) has temporarily stationed a team of experts at the foundry in Kabin Buri district of Prachin Buri province, where a metallic cylinder containing caesium-137 had been melted down.

 

Kitkawin Aramrun, head of the nuclear and radiation emergency operation centre of the OAP, said today (Tuesday) that the experts will conduct radiation checks at the foundry and in its surrounding areas and will plot their readings on a map.

 

He maintains that, so far, radiation has not been detected outside the compound of the foundry but, more importantly, the experts will carefully check for radiation and will confine the radiation within the compound.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/radiation-experts-checking-kabin-buri-foundry/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-03-21

 

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[hotchilli]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

He maintains that, so far, radiation has not been detected outside the compound of the foundry but, more importantly, the experts will carefully check for radiation and will confine the radiation within the compound

Love to know how if it's already leaked?

[phetphet]

On 3/21/2023 at 5:57 AM, Furioso said:

It's already melted? WTH!!?? 

Does this mean they've contaminated a large area with radioactive gas/dust? 

Also the furnace, the smelted iron, steel or whatever, the waste products, and likely the surroundings.

 

I guess that area is off the  tourist must see list for now. At least until TAT can come up with a slogan.

[NanLaew]

There was a story last week on how a local car wash reported seeing a container similar to the missing one in the back of a pickup of a security guard who worked at the industrial estate where the power station was located.

 

Has there been any finger-pointing follow-up on that story?

 

This caesium-137 container was apparently mounted at height on a tank wall. The most common undated picture shows the mounting bolts already in a high state of corrosion. It's maybe safe to assume that it did fall off and was lying on the ground and after it had been there for several weeks, the security guard decided they won't miss this and loaded it in his pickup. Then he, or someone he knew, sold it to a scrapper. This got sold on and smelted along with a bunch of other scrap creating smoke, ash and (contaminated?) metal ingots. The rest, as they say, is history but there seems to be more fuss about the ash than any smelted metal but maybe the dilution of the relatively small amount of caesium-137 with tons of clean scrap explains this?

 

We can also assume that any flow data being logged by this device would have stopped at the time it 'fell off'. We can assume that the plant operators either ignored the loss of data, or more likely, their monitoring systems were already malfunctioning due to lack of preventative maintenance, so it was deemed irrelevant and non-critical due to ignorance, greed along with poor regulation and oversight.

 

twas ever thus