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Thieves Who Stole Cobalt-60 Will Soon Be Dead
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Washington Post reports that the carjackers who set off international alarm bells by absconding with a truckload of highly radioactive cobalt-60, used in hospital radiotherapy machines, most likely had no idea what they were stealing and will die soon from exposure. The robbery occurred as the cobalt-60 was being driven from a public hospital in the border town of Tijuana to a storage facility in central Mexico. While waiting for daybreak at a gas station in the state of Hidalgo the drivers were jumped by two gunmen who beat them and stole the truck. "I believe, definitely, that the thieves did not know what they had; they were interested in the crane, in the vehicle," says Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist with Mexico's nuclear safety commission. The prospect that material that could be used in a radioactive dirty bomb had gone missing sparked an urgent two-day hunt that concluded when the material, cobalt-60, used in hospital radiotherapy machines, was found along with the stolen Volkswagen truck. The cobalt-60 was found, removed from its casing, in a rural area near the town of Hueypoxtla about 25 miles from where the truck was stolen. Jimenez suspects that curiosity got the better of the thieves and they opened the box. So far the carjackers have not been arrested, but authorities expect they will not live long. "The people who handled it will have severe problems with radiation. They will, without a doubt, die.""
or gain superpowers.
Instant Karma is gonna get ya...
Title says it all.
On my lunch bag when I put it in the fridge at work I put
"Strontium-90 - RADIOACTIVE" on one side
The other I put
"LIVE SPECIMEN - BIOHAZZARD"
I nominate these guys for the Darwin award!
You've been watching too much tv
"Kiss Me Deadly".
In some cases yes. The L3 band used by the GPS satellite system is used to detect and report nuclear detonations, but I do not know if a small amount of cobalt-60 would be detected by a satellite 26,000 kilometres away.
By any chance was it a 1964 Chevy Malibu?
I am going to stencil "Cobalt-60" on every thing that I own that could be of interest to the thieves.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
That's not really a transaction that you set up on one day's notice.
"Hey. I heard that you were a terrorist and I just wanted to give you a call and offer you some radioactive material that I happened to get my hands on. So is that something you would be interested in?"
The difference with about 100 Americans on the road today, is that at least they know it in advance.
We can identify radiation sources in the sky with pinpoint accuracy.
Yeah, multiple times what the sun will put out in its lifetime against the vast vacuum of cold space. Aside from that you mostly get infrared, radio and visible light. All three useless in this case given the background of where you're looking for it. So, this is a little different. And even at that there are forms of radiation we have a very hard time detecting the origins of with any real accuracy. If you want to dispute this I'll leave it to you to provide the proof.
Geiger-Mueller detectors work on the photoelectric effect. Point source radiation is an inverse square law. You wouldn't detect this stuff even a few miles away. Reactors hardly release any isotopes. It's the thermals that show up on satellites
Here you go: The Goiânia accident.
It wasn't an X-ray machine though, but a device for radiotherapy.
Fortunately, X-ray machines are harmless when powered down.
Unfortunately, it's happened enough that it's sadly hard to narrow down. Though if I had to guess, you were originally referring to this one.
It's too bad they found that cobalt. If not, they would have lived forever!
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Right, because it's not like there's a plethora of criminal organizations in Mexico already, that they could have walked the material to. No drug cartels, no corrupt local officials, nope, none, nada.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
The all new 2015 Toyota Camry with nuclear anti-theft aka pandora's box protection (pbp).
ISO 21482 is pretty universal. Doesn't solve any of the nastier issues of cross-cultural-communication-without-shared-assumptions; but either that symbol, the old trefoil, or both, are about as iconic as warning labels get.
Now, as for this 'cobalt 60 in those drug shipments' concept, it might expose the mules (who tend to be low level and treated as expendable anyway) to enough radiation to kill them, slowly; but the major effect would be on the customers: ie. the coke-snorting Americans whining about them. You wouldn't be the first to suggest this... particular approach, the winning the war on drugs; but I bet you'd learn some interesting things about who does drugs once the casualties start to pile up.
They probably don't. They felt nausea after first handling it, then after that passed they felt fine. They will continue to feel fine for maybe one to three days during what is called the "walking ghost" phase, after which their bodies will start shutting down and they die a very messy and painful death.
The L3 band is the transmission band used to communicate with the base stations on the ground. The disturbances themselves are detected using the satellite's onboard instruments.
The GPS satellites are incredibly sensitive to atmospheric disturbances and can detect anything that causes interference with radio transmissions, such as electron emission from a subterranean nuclear test. It is not necessary to detect the emission source itself, just the effects of the emission.
I bet you'd learn some interesting things about who does drugs once the casualties start to pile up.
Indeed, there have been cops, judges, and prosecuters in the news in Illinois in the last year who were busted for cocaine. There are the mayor of that Canadian city and the ex-mayor of DC. Look at Rush Limbaugh.
I look at "war on drugs" politicians like I look at right wing politicians who constantly decry homosexuality, how many of them have been kicked out of the closet?
I don't know if the GP is an idiot, a troll, or a government shill. He advocates a painful death for drug users? I smoke pot and advocate HIS death. Alcohol, tobacco, and coffee are all addictive drugs. Marijuana is not.
All of society's problems that are attributed to drugs are really problems that stem from the laws against them.
Free Martian Whores!
they have guns right? It's up to them how painful and horrible it is.
it can be quick and painless if they like.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Um thats all fiction. No, radioactive metal looks like normal metal, feels like normal metal and smells like normal metal. It simply kills you in 48 hrs. Violently with lots of hair loss and vomiting blood.
Shhhhh, here have a bowl.
They will, without a doubt, die...
Or at least 93% of us, since 7% of all humans who have ever existed are alive today.
Seen leaving the scene of the crime here: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bI0WbLHBXyY/Tix4ZFMCZ_I/AAAAAAABoSM/1YqK064jHsY/s640/back+to+the+future+whitewalls.jpg
and I think they need to get their engine checked.
Those two idiots.
If the loot starts to glow, just say "No"
In this particular case, and especially given the amount of crime in Mexico, it does not surprise me that the truck would be unmarked. And it doesn't really matter if the cargo is marked: carjackers aren't going to rob you at gunpoint and beat you up then take the time to look at the cargo and see if it is worth stealing. They are just going to drive off. I am surprised that the hospital didn't at least hire a security service to escort the shipment; I would assume even(maybe even especially) in Mexico contractable security services are common. Maybe they just aren't trustworthy or capabale enough?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mundo_Gira
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
They stole a truck with no idea of the cargo's value or importance, and probably didn't even care if someone else could die if they stole it. It might have been medical supplies, vaccines, food rations, anything. And if they'd gotten involved in a high speed pursuit they could have killed someone just running away. Not to mention their willingness to threaten deadly force in the act, which would have given the driver grounds to use the same in self defense, even without the cargo being lethal.
Which would itself only increase any self defense fatality in being justified if the thieves had gotten shot.
They jacked a rig, had no concern for the value of human life, and it bit them in the ass. To be blunt, they had it coming.
The fact that the authorities aren't even going to be responsible for punishing them means they have nobody to blame but themselves.
"ie. the coke-snorting Americans whining about them. You wouldn't be the first to suggest this... particular approach, the winning the war on drugs; but I bet you'd learn some interesting things about who does drugs once the casualties start to pile up."
Yes, a lot of Americans and Europeans would die. And I bet a lot of Canadians would as well.
I guess you're too lazy to read up on the subject and instead jump straight to bashing Americans. I know its easy and makes you feel better about yourself. But please try to at least make an effort to sound like a smug, smart ass. Here, I have done the work for you, since you appear to be incapable of doing it yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Effects_internationally
Improved cooperation of Mexico with the U.S. led to the recent arrests of 755 Sinaloa cartel suspects in U.S. cities and towns, but the U.S. market is being eclipsed by booming demand for cocaine in Europe, where users now pay twice the going U.S. rate.
OOPS! Bet you didn't see that one coming ... did you?
http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/mexican-drug-cartels-eye-spain-as-their-new-home.php
http://www.mexicogulfreporter.com/2013/04/mexican-drug-cartels-have-strong.html
http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/mexican-drug-cartels-eye-europe-238202.html
Sorry to be a dick but as an American I am tired of ignorant people outside of the USA painting every American as an ignorant slob.
doesnt the danger remain? The total rads you get is not as important is not as important as how you get those rads. If you inhale a particle, your body cannot dispel it and it will mutate your genes and kill you with cancer. Even minimal radiation, if constantly directed at you by an internalized particle will still kill you.
Short answer: No. Long answer: What do you mean "big doses"? There are many sources of gamma rays in the atmosphere (when stuff like cosmic rays hit it, you get a nice shower of gamma rays and other neat thingies). Maybe if you have a gamma spectrograph you can filter out just the cobalt-60 gamma rays, assuming they're unique? In that case you just need to worry about the fact that the surface is huge and gamma detectors are non-directional. That means that to scan a point on the surface you need to point straight at it. Unless you have a massive constillation of sats that means each "square" you scan will need to have a pretty high CPM for there to be a statistically significant number of counts during the scan. Due to the inverse square law, your satellite in LEO will only see a few CPS if somebody within 1KM of the source is getting several MILLION CPM. That translates into radiation sickness within a few days. For being 1KM away. Don't even ask about being in the same room as it! And of course the area you're scanning in 1 second is pretty huge so this detector wouldn't be much help locating things. And that's assuming no background radiation on the same order (or higher) CPS.
This would change if you have a gamma ray vector spectrograph that lets you measure the exact frequency and vector of each gamma ray it detects. But right now I think the filters are pretty fuzzy AND the techniques used are all non-directional. Even assuming perfect filters and vector detectors, the counts have to be huge before they show up in space right when you're looking. And I think the assumption you even can filter so you won't see any background ticks is incorrect, but I have no idea what kind of spectral distribution the Earth's gamma background has.
The reason you can have satellites that detect and locate the gamma bursts of underground nuclear tests is because of the B word. If it's a burst then you can triangulate between satellites even though their detectors are scalar not vector. That's because the sudden uptick that each satellite sees is tied to the same physical event. If you're looking at decay emissions then the counts are not synchronized so you can't triangulate. Oh, and also the gamma ray burst from an explosion is pretty big compared to the decay from a few kg of cobalt-60.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
No, it becomes half as dangerous in about six years. That's still pretty dangerous.
Goiana was Cesium-137.
There have been several incidents with Cobalt-60 sources, including one in 2010 in Dehli, India, and another in 2000, in Thailand. And in some cases, the radioactive material has ended up being recycled into new products; for example - incidents which actually happened: water-dishes for pets, and belt-buckles sold from discount websites. In these cases, the radioactivity was detected by random spot-checks. There are probably products out there that have incorporated recycled radioactive substances, which made it through spot-checks and are sitting in people's homes, making them sick - and there is no way for us to know.
With regard to the cobalt 60 source: Wikipedia says it was 111 Tbq.
"Example: a 60Co source with an activity of 2.8 GBq, which is equivalent to 60 g of pure 60Co, generates a dose of 1 mSv at one meter distance within one hour."
A 1 Sv dose in 1 hour, is lethal.
Extrapolating 111 TBq to 2.8 GBq; (111,000/2.8 = 39,642 ...); so multiply 1 mSv by that, and you get 39.6 Sv per hour.
If they took it out of it's casing, they'd receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than 2 minutes. (depending on how close they stayed, and how long they stayed near it). Staying at least 400 cm away, would mitigate much of the beta particles, but not the gamma rays. Gamma rays are attenuated by the inverse square law, like any radiant energy. So distance is also your friend, but better still, an inch or so of lead.
They would not start feeling symptoms, until an hour or two later. Dizzyness, headache, nausea, vomiting. Later - worse symptoms appear. It will probably take a few days for them to die, and they may seek medical treatment, which may save them, depending on how long they were in close proximity to the unshielded source.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I'm at least going to want to do it... On the Beach.
I am no nuclear scientist, but I thought radiation sickness and death was a factor of emission of the source and well as time exposed and distance.
The exact details of the source can be found here(111 TBq):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt-60#Safety
However all they did was find the material, unshielded. They don't know how long the thieves had been exposed to it. Unless the level was high enough that any unshielded exposure would lead to insta-death (which I find hard to believe). It could be that their exposure was reduced to opening it, discarding it, and leaving, so on the magnitude of minutes. Anyway they seem to be missing 2 or 3 variables to make such a assured claim.
I don't know how to calculate a lethal dose from the indicated source strength to figure out the amount of time needed. Looking into it, calculating TBq (or Curie) into Gy/h (or rads/h) looks pretty complicated. Found an online tool, but it doesn't seem to work.
Anyway far from "They will, without a doubt, die.", unless it is of that insta-gib variety.
Here is a mortality chart:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome#Signs_and_symptoms
2-6 Gy seems bad but possibly treatable, while 6+ means you are probably going to die regardless of what you do.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
With that user id? It's a troll account.
> better still, an inch or so of lead.
depends. An old friend worked with medical radio-iodine, which emits high energy gammas. Part of her job was introducing new medical staff to the procedures. She would bring in the standard lead drapes and a Geiger counter and ask them all if they understood radiation precautions. They would of course say yes; she was just a little old lady (her own description), after all, and they were Doctors and Nurses.
She'd hold up the Geiger counter near the patient who had taken the radio-iodine dose, and the Geiger counter would click away steadily.
Then she'd put the lead drape in between patient and Geiger counter -- and the counter would roar.
Then she'd smile and say:
"... I know you all understand secondary radiation, and how gamma rays mostly go straight through tissue like you and me without interacting, but if they hit a really dense material like these lead drapes, they knock off a huge number of electrons that become charged particles that will interact far more readily with tissue, that's one of the reasons we call it ionizing radiation.
"So who wants a drape?"
I'm fairly certain legalizing things like meth and cocaine wouldn't do much to aid the addicted.
It's better than sending them to prison, AKA Criminal University. If their drugs were cheaper they wouldn't be stealing from me. I never knew a cigarette smoker or alcoholic stealing to support their addictions.
Legalization would end the drug violence, just as Prohibition's end ended the violence of the illegal liquor trade. All the arguments for Prohibition as well as against it still apply in today's prohibitions, and history shouldn't be ignored.
Free Martian Whores!
You rebutted his "coke snorting Americans" with an article that says most of the Mexican coke is snorted by Americans but the Europeans are catching up? Hm....
The cobalt source is said to have been found in a rural area. What about the exposure of the people who found it?
Where they snort the isotope thinking its coke. You are dead and there is fuck all they can do about it. Tylenol overdose does the same thing too though if its not treated in time. You get mildly ill first. Then you get better and suddenly deteriorate since your liver is cooked. Very freaky shit.
Good thing this didn't happen in the U.S.A. Otherwise the families of the robbers would be suing the hospitals for wrongful death.