Slashdot Mirror
Cobalt-60, and Lessons From a Mexican Theft
Lasrick writes "George Moore and Miles Pomper examine the theft of a truck containing Cobalt-60 and find that, while Mexico did the right thing and reported the theft promptly, they were under no obligation to do so according to international rules and the IAEA. This was true even though the stolen material was 3,000 curies, making it a Category 1 source (the most dangerous). Quoting: 'At a distance of 30.5 centimeters (1 foot) from an unshielded source with an activity level of 3,000 curies, the dose to a bystander would be about 37,000 Rem per hour (a measure of radiation exposure). This means that anyone within a foot of the source when it was out of its shield was being exposed to about 10 Rem per second, a level that would typically kill half of a population exposed to it for 30 seconds. ... The number of fatalities will not be nearly as high as it would have been if the source capsule had been left in a public place. Cobalt 60, like other high-risk radiological sources, is more lethal when it is kept intact as a high-strength source than it would be if spread using a radiological dispersal device such as a so-called “dirty bomb.” Nonetheless, had the Mexican source been used in a dispersal device, the economic consequences could have been extremely significant.'"
Mother of God, this "beta" is awful.
Thanks Slashdot for joining in on the fun. News for nerds, fictional stuff that matters from a fictional perspective.
An account of what happened and what could have happened via Steve Weintz https://medium.com/war-is-boring/26b40dd869fb
The beaner's have got a dirty bomb, Next up the war on Mexico!!
Why are you Americans such pussies and afraid all the time?
Had a terrorist put this under a seat cushion in a bus terminal, they could kill hundreds, perhaps thousands before it would eventually be tracked down.
Damn dirty bombs, sneak attacks are more deadly.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
'61 was a much better year for Cobalt. Cobalt-60 far overrated, and people are paying too much for it on the open market.
is at far more risk!
Finally, we have proof of how lethal Indian food is!
You don't even need to eat the stuff, just be exposed to A LOT of curries for 30 seconds and you're dead!
From now on, I will wear lead underwear when passing by an Indian restaurant. Safety is my #1 priority!
Bono is the main man when it comes to monster sized turds. He is all turd you know. Randy Marsh is reported to have dumped a 100-Couric turd but you know how that is.
I'm so glad the news is reporting on exactly how to cause most deaths vs most economic havoc; the terrorists should bookmark this for their training seminars.
*facepalm*
>the economic consequences could have been extremely significant
That's a good way to measure the effects of thousands of innocent people dying mysteriously--the ECONOMIC consequences.
Perhaps we should but Cobalt-90 in an area where only unemployed people are likely to come in contact with it? Think of the economic benefits!
Many nuclear accidents in countries that cooperate with the IAEA get a a detailed freely available public report which is quite interesting reading.
Have any radiation-scorched-flesh Mexican men's bodies been found to date?
Because really, I can't believe in the danger we've been told about until the headlines of "them banditos are doomed, they opened the capsule" are proven true.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
...Mexican Jumping Beans
It's here to stay.
A similar device got loose in Brazil back in 1987, and serves as an example of the kind of mayhem that can heppen when one of these sources get loose even in the hands of non-malicious people. The story on it in wikipedia is interesting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident.
Hey gais! I found Slashdot's interest in this story! Hey gais!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"the economic consequences could have been extremely significant"
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES?!?! *That's* what comes to mind?!?!?
When the world's worst nuclear disaster at Fukushima was fresh in the news, the owners of Slashdot promoted endless stories, created as propaganda by industry shills, stating that the public fear of nuclear radiation was laughably overblown, and that actually a good dose of radiation is good for you (yes, Slashdot actually carried stories making this claim). Indeed, Slashdot promoted stories over and over laughably claiming that radiation from Fukushima had killed no-one, and would certainly not be responsible for deaths in the future.
Now, in a different context, we discover that if the reputation of the nuclear 'industry' is NOT perceived to be at risk, suddenly radioactive isotopes become deadly again. Forget 'intelligent design', the owners of Slashdot ore pushing the concept of 'INTELLIGENT RADIATION' that looks at the circumstances behind why people are being exposed before deciding whether to harm Human health or not.
This is how stupid the owners of Slashdot think YOU are. The most significant explosion at Fukushima blasted tons of plutonium (the Japanese power station was part of Japan's hardly hidden nuclear warhead processing pipelines) across the surrounding, significantly inhabited, areas. All of a sudden, the world's mainstream media 'spontaneously' decided that plutonium actually wasn't a deadly health risk after all. Of course, students of history can witness the sheeple of EVERY Human era being duped just as laughably, when the people in power benefit from such propaganda lies. But each new generation of sheeple manage to persuade themselves that such lies belong to darker times when people were more gullible, and that THEY, the current sheeple, couldn't possibly fall for such transparent manipulation. And by 'THEY', I mean YOU, the current idiots that get everything you THINK you know from mainstream media sources.
Oh, and here's a little recent example of the same. After the false flag of 9/11, which resurrected the US war planning described in Operation Northwoods, as demanded by the PNAC document, there was a propaganda need to keep 9/11 at the top of the news cycle for the weeks that followed, until the US could arrange its rolling programs of genocides, beginning with Afghanistan. The MAIN method was to have news crews constantly report from the site of World Trade Centre, and talk about the amazing rivers of molten steel underground that kept the site so 'hot' it could be thermally identified by satellites. One problem- the story as given to the sheeple about 'kinectic collapses' could NEVER explian the presence of masses of molten steel.
At first no-one noticed. A few years later, it became a major issue (the towers came down because their steel 'skeleton' was literally melted away at key points- the ONLY way to demolish such buildings in a 'resistance free' free fall collapse). The response of your masters, and the mainstream media outlets they control? To DENY that any news coverage had ever discussed or filmed molten steel at the World Trade Centre site. The BBC- the frontline propagandist at the time, actually removed ALL general access to its archives when the problem became apparent, and removed the hundreds of news broadcasts that focused on the rivers of molten steel.
Sheeple are known to have the memory of goldfish. The sea of mainstream media is KNOWN to wipe all memory of older mainstream media propaganda, if the new propaganda consistently pushes a new direction, and access to recording of the old propaganda is effectively non-existent for most people. The book, 1984, famously has this phenomenon as one of its central themes- because its author was intimately aware of the same tricks used by the British (not Soviet) establishment. The Soviets were way too clumsy and heavy handed. The BBC, on the other hand, prides itself on being able to produce diametrically opposite propaganda in adjoining years without its viewers noticing the shift.
Why will that Republican stereotype of Mexicans being radioactive just not die? You people that keep perpetuating that lie should be ashamed of yourselves. It's racism of the worst sort.
I used to think I spent to much time on Slashdot, and that maybe I should cut back.
This "beta" could be just what I need to help me quit Slashdot.
The entire quote beginning from "'At a distance of 30.5 centimeters..." should have been shortened down to something like what was found near the end of that quote (which was still over-long and bloviating). Therefore, approximately like the following:
"A person standing 1 foot away from this material for 30 seconds, unshielded, would stand a 50% chance of dying from the resultant exposure."
They needed to answer the question: How dangerous is this stuff? In terms any non-specialist can understand. Cut it out with the Curies, Rems, Category 1, disguised LD50 and technical jargon.
Answer: Really, really dangerous!
just how many libraries of congress is that?
I'd at least expect a fukushima or something...
Max.
Lessons? more like lesions!
I don't see how. I can understand ultraviolet radiation from the sun, but from cobalt? I guess cobalt gives tans like the sun or burns the skin? Can someone explain? Thanks
This is why food irradiation using radioactive elements, fondly rejiggered with the euphemism "cold pasteurization", is so insane. There are cheap food factories all over the U.S. with amounts of Cobalt-60 much greater than in this recent heist, with laughable security, all so we can be fed rotten, contaminated food they shouldn't be selling anyway.
The possible costs so outweigh the questionable "benefits" in this case, there is no other way to describe this terrorist-tragedy-waiting-to-happen other than willful, reckless endangerment of the lives of millions. All to make a few more dollars selling diseased meat.
Yes, but the other half would get super-powers.
I know how this stuff works. I read books. I been trying to break into x-ray labs for years hoping to get, like, you know, all buff and everything. Go ahead and laugh. We'll see who's laughing when I'm a one-man Fantastic Four.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"Cobalt 60, like other high-risk radiological sources, is more lethal when it is kept intact as a high-strength source than it would be if spread using a radiological dispersal device such as a so-called “dirty bomb.”"
I think how effective a weapon it is depends entire on where it is dispersed.
Say a water supply, a crowded subway, or maybe just go around dropping pellets on side walks.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Everyone is claiming that if you were within 3 feet of the Cobalt-60, you would be dead within 30 seconds or within an hour. How come the guys who stole the Cobalt-60 and opened the box are still alive? Lots of doom and gloom but the thieves are still alive days after and none appear in grave danger.
From TFA:
No contamination resulted because the capsule (typically a small welded stainless steel container that holds a wire containing cobalt ) was not itself opened.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Google isn't helping here...
I'm an AC - duh - can someone inform as how to disable the "beta" version of site? Redirect block doesn't seem to work any more. Thanks!
It it is irradiated, then it has ben exposed to ionizing radiation.
Something can get irradiated without getting contaminated (easy to see if the source of the radiation isn't radioactive material, e.g. an x-ray tube), but if it's contaminated, then it is usually also irradiated.
Every time the concept of dirty bomb is used in film, or TV or in TV news, it is hyped to the extrem. But do the journalist and media do their job to make people understand that panick would be the risk, and radiation not the risk ? nope. nope. Nope. Here is your media failure. Journalist informing people ? Forget it.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
The event shows that constructing a dirty bomb is summarily lethal for anyone trying to construct one and effectively undeliverable as a weapon.