Australian authorities are desperate to find a small capsule emitting a dangerous amount of radiation.
Australia, a radioactive caesium-137 capsule fell out of a truck. The authorities have already begun searching for her, but admitted that everything may be unsuccessful.
The Guardian writes about this.
The 8 mm by 6 mm capsule is a ceramic source of caesium-137 with a capacity of 19 Gigabecquerel, commonly used in radiation sensors, fell out of a protected device, a manometer, on a truck traveling from a mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to a warehouse in the state capital.
According to investigators, the bolt securing the lead manometer , containing the capsule, fell out somewhere during the trip and the capsule fell through the hole left by the missing bolt.
“There is a possibility that we will not be able to find (the capsule). It is possible,” the management admitted Western Australia Rescue Service.
The State Fire and Emergency Department has already deployed search engines with radiation detection devices and metal detectors to critical sections of the truck's route, particularly in densely populated areas. The search is complicated by the fact that the total distance that the truck traveled from the mine to Perth is approximately 1,400 km.
Caesium-137 (half-life of 30 years) is an artificial nuclide, an integral part of radioactive fallout. This nuclide is available in large quantities from nuclear reactor fuel processing and is used in cobalt 60 sites to produce encapsulated power sources. Cesium enters the human body and begins to irradiate it from the inside. Cesium has a number of radioactive forms.
