Radioactive material container from hijacked truck found empty, Mexico

[Razor]

Mexican police located a stolen truck which contained dangerous radioactive material the UN warned could be used to construct a "dirty bomb." The safety container holding that cargo was found empty, with the material abandoned nearby.

The vehicle was found close to where it was stolen outside of Mexico City as it was transporting cobalt-60 from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center. Mexico's nuclear safety director Juan Eibenschutz said radioactivity had been detected about a half mile (1 kilometer) from where the truck and container were located.

Mexico's national nuclear safety commission CNSNS has said that the thieves, thought to be unaware of the contents which have now been located, removed it from its protective container and were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told the AP, saying that exposure could cause death almost immediately if in close proximity.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz added.

So far there were no indications that the theft of the cobalt was an intentional act of terrorism, said Eibenshutz. The stolen radioactive material was used in radiation therapy equipment that is now obsolete and is being phased out of Mexico's public health system.

http://rt.com/news/mexico-radioactive-material-stolen-730/

Those thieves thought it was some expensive hospital equipment, now they're gonna end up in the hospital or the mortuary.

 

[SajeevJino]

Re: Radioactive material container from hijacked truck found empty, Me

e suggested that an arsenal of cobalt bombs would be capable of destroying all human life on Earth (though his conclusions are disputed).[2][3]

As far as is publicly known, no cobalt bombs have ever been built. The Operation Antler/Round 1 test by the British at the Tadje site in the Maralinga range in Australia on September 14, 1957 tested a bomb using cobalt pellets as a radiochemical tracer for estimating yield. This was considered a failure and the experiment was not repeated

Cobalt bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I Love the Cobalt Bombs