![]() Officials had feared the capsule could have become lodged in the tires of another vehicle and transported far from the search zone. Robertson, the chief health officer, said that standing one meter from the capsule for one hour would be the equivalent of receiving the radiation dose of 10 X-rays. ![]() Department of Fire and Emergency/ReutersĬaesium-137 can create serious health problems for people who come into contact with it: burns from close exposure, radiation sickness and potentially deadly cancer risks, especially for those exposed unknowingly for long periods of time. It is remote enough that it’s not in any major community so it is unlikely that anybody has been exposed to the capsule,” he said.Ī member of the Incident Management Team coordinates the search for a radioactive capsule lost in transit. “It does not appear to have moved – it appears to have fallen off the track and landed on the side of the road. On Thursday it would start its journey south again – this time to a health department facility in Perth.Ĭhief Health Officer and Chair of the Radiological Council Andrew Robertson said it doesn’t appear that anyone was exposed to the capsule’s radiation during the time it was missing. Officials said a 20-meter exclusion zone had been set up around the capsule, and it would be transferred to a lead container before being taken to a security facility in Newman. local time Wednesday, two meters from the road just south of the small town of Newman by crews using radiation detection equipment. Department of Fire and Emergency Services/APĪuthorities said the missing capsule was detected at 11:13 a.m. Members of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services search for the radioactive capsule on the outskirts of Perth, Australia, on Jan. The capsule’s disappearance sparked a massive search of the highway with specialized radiation detection units – and prompted warnings to the public not to approach the capsule, which could cause serious burns on contact with skin.Īuthorities believe the capsule – about 8 millimeters high and 6 millimeters round – somehow fell off the back of a truck as it was being transported 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) along the Great Northern Highway from the mine. “Locating this object was a monumental challenge – the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack,” state Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a news conference Wednesday. State emergency authorities announced the discovery on Wednesday afternoon, six days after the capsule, containing highly radioactive Caesium-137, was discovered missing from a package sent hundreds of kilometers from a Rio Tinto mining site in northern Western Australia to the capital Perth. Authorities scanning a remote Australian highway for a tiny missing radioactive capsule have found it by the roadside, after a challenging search likened to trying to find a needle in a haystack.
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