Australian authorities reported this on Wednesday they are healed the tiny radioactive capsule lost by the Rio Tinto mining company in a vast and complicated search for this potentially deadly material.
“I want to emphasize that this is an extraordinary result (…) The research teams have literally found the needle in the haystack‘, the head of emergency services in the state of Western Australia, Stephen Dawson, said at a news conference.
The representative of the regional government specified that the device, 6 mm in diameter and 8 in heightwas found this Wednesday morning about 50 kilometers south of the town of Newmanwhere a truck picked him up days ago to transport him to the city of Perth, a journey of about 1,400 kilometres, a distance greater than the length of Great Britain.
the small capsule was found among the stones in the ditch about two meters off the Great Northern Highway, where a car equipped with special devices for the radiation detection – traveling by road at about 70 kilometers per hour – discovered the radiation emitted by the capsule.
The teams established a 20m security perimeter around the object proceed “safely” to its recovery e placed in a lead container, Protects from radiation.
The capsule was shipped back to Newman, where it will be stored until Thursday when it is moved to a center in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
They scan the area
Members of the Australian Organization for Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO) examine the area where the capsule was found to “ensure it is not contaminated” due to the risk of radiation leakage.
The tiny capsule contains a “small amount” of the radioactive substance cesium-137used in mines, and was lost in transit between January 10 and 16, the Western Australian Department of Health previously explained.
burns and disease
The authorities have warned, in a previous warning, aboutand the risks of exposure to this toxic substancewhich include “radiation burns or radiation sickness” such as cancer.
Although this Wednesday they assured it It is unlikely” that someone was exposed to radiation because they were quite far from the road and of any population.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been moved, but rather fell off the truckAndrew Robertson, director general of the Western Australia Office of Health, told the media.
The toxic material was packed up on 10 January and the vehicle arrived in Perth six days later but it wasn’t until the last day 25 that the cargo inspectors noticed that one of the parcels it was broken and one of those tiny capsules was lost on the road.
The radioactive device is part of a density gauge that had been used at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region.
The Western Australia Radiation Council has opened an investigation to determine how the radioactive capsule may have been lost, although it has not specified when it will issue its final report.
EFE extension
Source: Clarin
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