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Medical Radioactive Material Truck Stolen In Mexico

Posted by samzenpus on from the 35-rads-per-gallon dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A medical radioactive material truck has been stolen just outside Mexico City. From the article: 'BBC world affairs correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani says Cobalt-60 could theoretically be used in a so-called "dirty bomb" - an explosive device that could spread radioactive material over a wide area - although there is no official suggestion this was the purpose of the theft. Mexican police are currently conducting a search for the truck and its contents and have issued a press release to alert the public to its potential dangers.'"

4 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Already found by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kind of embarrassing for Slashdot to post this now, considering the truck has already been found. Apparently the container was opened, but it appears (at least most of) the Cobalt-60 is still intact.

    Considering the infrastructure and expense required to ship something like this (special shielded containers, etc), why don't they include a tracking device? Even a cheapo cell phone can be used as a tracking device, which is better than nothing.

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    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Already found by evilviper · · Score: 3, Informative

      Since you bothered to post, you could have the decency to post a link...

      http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/world/americas/mexico-radioactive-theft/

      http://abcnews.go.com/International/mexican-police-find-stolen-truck-radioactive-cargo/story?id=21091737

      http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2013/1204/Hijacked-radioactive-material-found-in-Mexico.-How-dangerous-was-it

      http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/4/-extremely-dangerousradioactivetheftinmexicoiaea.html

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/stolen-cobalt-60-found-abandoned/2013/12/04/7d3fe3f8-5d42-11e3-8d24-31c016b976b2_story.html

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      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  2. Goiânia Accident by Guillermito · · Score: 5, Informative

    Glad it was already found.

    To understand the risks that this type of events involve check what happened in Brazil several years ago when radioactive medical material went missing and ended up killing several people

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

  3. Re:Cobalt-60 is nasty stuff by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was a human fatality from a medical cobalt-60 source in 1990. A worker at a hospital trying to fix an irradiating sterilizer accidentally exposed himself to the source for 1-2 minutes. He died about a month later. The IAEA report on the incident is pretty thorough, including first-person details of the exposure (he felt a burning sensation in his eyes and a pounding in his head), photos, and x-rays documenting the effect of the exposure.