Mexico Informs IAEA of Theft of Dangerous Radioactive Source
37 replies, posted
[quote]Mexico has informed the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) of the theft of a truck carrying a dangerous radioactive source used in medical treatment.
Mexico's "Comisión Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear y Salvaguardias (CNSNS)" said the truck, which was transporting the cobalt-60 teletherapy source from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage centre, was stolen in Tepojaco near Mexico City at around 08:00 UTC on 2 December 2013.
At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded. However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged.
The Mexican authorities are currently conducting a search for the source and have issued a press release to alert the public.
The IAEA has made an offer of good offices to Mexico, a process that makes the IAEA available to provide assistance if requested by a Member State, and the IEC remains in contact with the CNSNS.[/quote]
[url]http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2013/mexicoradsource.html[/url]
Someone's trying to make a dirty bomb, I guess?
10$ says they find a cartel hideout where everyone has died from radiation poisoning because some idiot just plopped the source down on the middle of the room without reading any of the hazard signs
[editline]4th December 2013[/editline]
I bet they just wanted medical supplies to sell
Oh fuck.
please please please dont let what we are all undoubtedly thinking happen
Maybe some better security on those radioactive sources? This isn't the first I heard of them being stolen.
[QUOTE=Sableye;43066980]10$ says they find a cartel hideout where everyone has died from radiation poisoning because some idiot just plopped the source down on the middle of the room without reading any of the hazard signs
[editline]4th December 2013[/editline]
I bet they just wanted medical supplies to sell[/QUOTE]
More likely they figured it had valuables on board, especially if it had an armed guard. If they stole a radioactive source by accident, the real worry there is if they trail it around a wide area, and expose a large number of people to it.
[editline]4th December 2013[/editline]
Like in the Goiânia Accident in the 1980's, something like a thousand people got a significant dose of radiation due to a bunch of people messing around with a radioactive source.
[QUOTE=Camundongo;43067085]More likely they figured it had valuables on board, especially if it had an armed guard. If they stole a radioactive source by accident, the real worry there is if they trail it around a wide area, and expose a large number of people to it.
[editline]4th December 2013[/editline]
Like in the Goiânia Accident in the 1980's, something like a thousand people got a significant dose of radiation due to a bunch of people messing around with a radioactive source.[/QUOTE]
You fucker. Just as I hit quote I was intending to cite the Goiánia accident, and then you went and merged it.
[QUOTE=Drsalvador;43067137]You fucker. Just as I hit quote I was intending to cite the Goiánia accident, and then you went and merged it.[/QUOTE]
If it's any consolation, I had to go look the name up, I just remembered someone fucked up really bad in Brazil with a radioactive source.
I keep reading the title as IKEA.
[QUOTE=Camundongo;43067085]More likely they figured it had valuables on board, especially if it had an armed guard. If they stole a radioactive source by accident, the real worry there is if they trail it around a wide area, and expose a large number of people to it.
[editline]4th December 2013[/editline]
Like in the Goiânia Accident in the 1980's, something like a thousand people got a significant dose of radiation due to a bunch of people messing around with a radioactive source.[/QUOTE]
Cobalt 60 doesn't give off enough radiation at a distance to be particularly dangerous. If you are stuck working next to the stuff it will fuck you up in a day or so, but just running around a crowded area would have zero effect.
[QUOTE=GunFox;43067232]Cobalt 60 doesn't give off enough radiation at a distance to be particularly dangerous. If you are stuck working next to the stuff it will fuck you up in a day or so, but just running around a crowded area would have zero effect.[/QUOTE]
It's still fairly nasty, and it's gamma emissions are significantly more energetic than Caesium-137, the radioisotope behind the Goiânia accident, and it's also significantly more active. I'm not suggesting it's going to cause a nuclear catastrophe, but it could effect a significant amount of people, increasing their risk of cancer among other things.
[QUOTE=Cmx;43067161]I keep reading the title as IKEA.[/QUOTE]
If that were true, the only people that should be worried would be the poor bastards that have to build the bomb.
Poor Mexico, it doesn't want to be riddled with crime and danger, but it is.
[QUOTE=frozensoda;43067003]Oh fuck.
please please please dont let what we are all undoubtedly thinking happen[/QUOTE]
I think you should take some deep breaths.
Atomic bomb: No.
Dirty bomb: Possibly.
I'm not too worried.
One guy had a few X-Rays and Scans one day at a hospital, More than a usual person would, but not much, and on his way home he was stopped by a police officer on the road because the patrol car had some sort of detector in his car that actually went off when he was driving by
[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;43068716]Atomic bomb: No.
Dirty bomb: Possibly.[/QUOTE]
A dirty bomb is not a very effective way of spreading around radiation.
If a dirty bomb was detonated, the amount of radioactive material in a given area will be miniscule. Also since it's a explodey thing that could kill, most people wouldn't have any long exposure due to running to a safer place.
It is at it's deadliest when you keep it one piece and hidden.
They are better off selling it.
[QUOTE=Mastermind of42;43069131]A dirty bomb is not a very effective way of spreading around radiation.
If a dirty bomb was detonated, the amount of radioactive material in a given area will be miniscule. Also since it's a explodey thing that could kill, most people wouldn't have any long exposure due to running to a safer place.
It is at it's deadliest when you keep it one piece and hidden.
They are better off selling it.[/QUOTE]
The cleaning will be a bitch tho, imagine one going off in a city. Tiny dust fragments everywhere emitting gamma radiation. The city is basically domed.
[QUOTE=Camundongo;43067709]It's still fairly nasty, and it's gamma emissions are significantly more energetic than Caesium-137, the radioisotope behind the Goiânia accident, and it's also significantly more active. I'm not suggesting it's going to cause a nuclear catastrophe, but it could effect a significant amount of people, increasing their risk of cancer among other things.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it is definitely dangerous, but mostly to the people handling it directly. Its ability to be weaponized is very limited.
Must have been the lybians... heard they got it for a bomb, but some dolt gave them one made out of arcade parts or something. Now [I]that[/I] guy's got no future!
[QUOTE=TheTalon;43068892]I'm not too worried.
One guy had a few X-Rays and Scans one day at a hospital, More than a usual person would, but not much, and on his way home he was stopped by a police officer on the road because the patrol car had some sort of detector in his car that actually went off when he was driving by[/QUOTE]
Probably a radioactive tracer. X rays don't leave you radioactive.
[QUOTE=TheTalon;43068892]I'm not too worried.
One guy had a few X-Rays and Scans one day at a hospital, More than a usual person would, but not much, and on his way home he was stopped by a police officer on the road because the patrol car had some sort of detector in his car that actually went off when he was driving by[/QUOTE]
Umm, x-rays don't work that way. Like, at all. The beam is shot out, through you, some x-rays are absorbed or attenuated and the rest go through to the plate / sensor. You don't become radioactive because of it. The beam is also kept as low as reasonably practical (ALARP)
Radionuclide imaging (Nuclear medicine) does leave you radioactive, but only a very, very tiny amount due to the careful management of materials, with very short half lives chosen, combined with relatively low overall radioactivity. They also tend to use beta emitters, which a patrol car would not pick up. Again, ALARP applies for everything. You don't want to endanger the patient, staff, or public. Some things also use radioactive tracers, but again the materials chosen are very specific for keeping dosage as low as possible and getting out of the system as fast as possible.
Some radiotherapy (brachytherapy) also leaves you slightly radioactive, but if I recall correctly, in that case it is still a very carefully managed beta or alpha source and again, since the dose is kept ALARP, it would be very hard to pick up from a patrol car. (due to the fact it's contained within a container within the person)
BBC got photos of it before it was shipped.
[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71525000/jpg/_71525135_71525130.jpg[/img]
[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71526000/jpg/_71526608_71526607.jpg[/img]
[img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71526000/jpg/_71526603_71526602.jpg[/img]
It LOOKS like part of a bomb. It's huge.
thats because its part of an x-ray machine... its not like you can just plop a radiactive source into the machine through the top, its got to be carefully shielded so that only the aperture releases radiation
[QUOTE=GunFox;43070501]Yeah, it is definitely dangerous, but mostly to the people handling it directly. Its ability to be weaponized is very limited.[/QUOTE]
I was literally just suggesting that, like the Goiânia accident, the people who currently possess it might manage to expose a load of people to radiation by not fully understanding what they were dealing with, and just cart a fairly active radioactive source unshielded through a heavily populated area.
I agree dirty bombs aren't amazing effective, except for causing panic and necessitating costly clean up operations (although one could argue that [i]is[/i] the point of them), but cobalt has been suggested as an addition to nuclear weapons to make their fallout extra potent. That's pretty a theoretical discussion though, because even nations with access to nukes haven't tried it, but I suppose it does make cobalt-60 weaponisable.
They found the truck. The truck was empty.
I hope to god its not the Cartels. They would be the type of people to go full retard, and try to use a dirty bomb or something along those lines on a Mexican or American town. If it honestly gets that bad, I would seriously recommend a UN Security Resolution.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;43072658]I hope to god its not the Cartels. They would be the type of people to go full retard, and try to use a dirty bomb or something along those lines on a Mexican or American town. If it honestly gets that bad, I would seriously recommend a UN Security Resolution.[/QUOTE]
Why would they do that?
It would be easier to just light themselves on gasoline than give the US a legitimate reason to essentially invade Mexico.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;43072658]I hope to god its not the Cartels. They would be the type of people to go full retard, and try to use a dirty bomb or something along those lines on a Mexican or American town. If it honestly gets that bad, I would seriously recommend a UN Security Resolution.[/QUOTE]
I doubt it, the cartels also aren't exactly the smartest tools in the shed. It would take some skill to actually assemble the material into a usable weapon of any kind. Like it was said before, they will probably end up killing themselves trying to weaponize it.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;43072658]I hope to god its not the Cartels. They would be the type of people to go full retard, and try to use a dirty bomb or something along those lines on a Mexican or American town. If it honestly gets that bad, I would seriously recommend a UN Security Resolution.[/QUOTE]
the cartels may be comprised of ultraviolent sociopaths but they still have a drug business to run, and heightened military presence is not conducive to that. if somebody wants to bomb a town then a cartel probably didn't order it
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