Medical Radioactive Material Truck Stolen In Mexico

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.'"

Comments

Already found

[Dan East]

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.

Re:Already found

[WarJolt]

We don't get embarrassed at Slashdot. We just post stuff and hope it gets moded up.

Re:Already found

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently the container was opened, but it appears (at least most of) the Cobalt-60 is still intact.

Haha! Nothing beats a good radioactive half-life/decay joke!

Re:Already found

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason why they don't include a tracking device with such shipments is because they are worried about the health effects of exposure to cell phone radiation.

Re:Already found

[Jane Q. Public]

"I'm trying to decide if I should give El Gran Hombre a luchador mask"

If you do, you MUST call him Strong Bad, or your audience will never forgive you.

Re:Already found

[bill_mcgonigle]

And a fine example of yellow journalism, at that. I read an earlier, more balanced new source that said the truck was a nice cargo truck, one with a crane, and it was stolen at a truck stop. Everybody thinks they wanted the truck and had no idea what it was carrying. The hysterics about terrorism in the summary are unfounded.

And I won't admit any relation to my cunning plan to manufacture refrigerators that open a Cobalt 60 door when the light goes out to keep food from ever going bad!

Re:Already found

[evilviper]

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

Re:Already found

[plover]

Strontium Bad?

Re:Already found

[Solandri]

And a fine example of yellow journalism, at that. I read an earlier, more balanced new source that said the truck was a nice cargo truck, one with a crane, and it was stolen at a truck stop. Everybody thinks they wanted the truck and had no idea what it was carrying. The hysterics about terrorism in the summary are unfounded.

While the terrorism danger is overstated, the danger of the material in the hands of the unsuspecting or ignorant is pretty much the same. Someone already posted a link to the GoiÃnia accident so I won't repeat it. The folks who got their hands on a similar medical radioactive source there had absolutely no idea what it was. But it had a pretty blue glow, so they were determined to get the material out. After much effort they cracked open the housing, and spread the cobalt-60 around creating a disaster ranked level 5 on the INES scale (same as Three Mile Island).

While there was no terrorist intent, the result was effectively the same as a dirty bomb. 4 people killed, over 200 contaminated, over $100 million to clean up, numerous structures razed, they even had to scrape up the topsoil from the most contaminated sites. The cobalt-60 was so widely disseminated that about 15% of it was never recovered. Some of it ended up at a recycling scrapyard who melted down the container, contaminating the resulting metal ingots. And they were fortunate - the woman who suspected the substance was dangerous brought it to the hospital in a plastic bag, and the doctor was smart enough not to open the bag. If the hospital had been contaminated, the outcome could have been much, much worse.

This has happened before.

[goodmanj]

1984, Ciudad Juarez: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/1983MEX1.html

NSA already did it

[gavron]

The NSA tracked it.

They just responded to the Mexican's request for information with a redacted report saying:
It's located right [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX].
Good luck [XXXXXXXXXXXX] your [XXXXXXXXXXXX].

NSA

Cobalt-60 is nasty stuff

[volvox_voxel]

I knew a post-doc that worked with the stuff at the University of Chicago. One thing they tested with it was to see how long a rat would live being exposed to it. They had some kind of lead door between the rat and the source..I don't remember the specific number, but it wasn't all that long-- probably renal failure due to their kidneys not being able to handle such a massive amount of cell death... The exposure rate constant of Cobalt-60 is 1,350mR-m^2 / hr-Ci, and has a half life of 5.27 years. I wonder if the guys that opened it up are experiencing radiation sickness?

Re:Cobalt-60 is nasty stuff

[Solandri]

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.

Goiânia Accident

[Guillermito]

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

Re:Goiânia Accident

[cyberjock1980]

The Mexican government and several other sources have already said that they'll know who opened the container with the Co-60 soon enough. Unless they had significant amounts of shielding they could have received a lethal dose in a few minutes. They said that just 5 minutes worth of exposure will kill the individual in about 3 days.

Found and thieves will die

[OmarArmas1159]

They found it with a detector and they say that people who manipulated the box will die because of the exposure. Nobody else is in risk.

Especially considering dirty bomb

[aepervius]

Journalist keep touting the dirty bomb concept, but even with a big blast you would not propel enough Co 60 to kill people in a wide radius. There are study on this go look it up. The only reason such a bomb would be effective would be as a *psychological* tool. Since journalist and movie media keep touting the dirty bomb danger, it becomes one in the mind of people, and they would really panick if one was really set off. The reality is that it would be nasty to clean up, but even if not cleaned up it would not be that bad.

Since a dirty bomb is unlikely to cause many deaths by radiation exposure, many do not consider this to be a weapon of mass destruction.[5] Its purpose would presumably be to create psychological, not physical, harm through ignorance , mass panic, and terror.

If a dirty radiological bomb is set off and panick subsequentely kill people, you can point the finger at journalist and media not doing their proper job to inform people about the real risk.