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Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

abc.net.au

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Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#81

Post by puffoflogic »

mschuster91 wrote: post #66
martynr wrote: post #57

Does anyone else feel like this is slightly overblown? From my perspective it was a localised and relatively limited risk and had fairly obvious and achievable corrective actions with a relatively good chance of success. It intrigues me that this seems to be perceived as something so calamitous/ risky.

> From my perspective it was a localised and relatively limited risk Localized? Yes. But limited? You can't see radiation. The absolute worst case would be someone getting it stuck into a tire or a shoe, spreading radiation everywhere they go.

> spreading radiation everywhere they go.

Radiation is not "spread" in the manner you are suggesting. The only affect on passers-by would be transient exposure - less than ideal, but not a fatal risk.

If the capsule were breached and radioactive material were spread, then that would be a disaster posing actual risk to the public at large.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#82

Post by discordance »

nl wrote: post #60
defrost wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that's because you don't work in a 800 million tonne per annum mining industry that routinely ships heavy equipment 1,000 - 2,000 km backwards and forwards and has done so for 50 years. The equipment was logged when loaded on the 11th, the load sat and then travelled for a couple of days and was unloaded and then sat until it was first inspected (to have the capsule replaced) at which point the loss was…

Dangerous items should be prioritised.

I heard a story about someone who checks in a starting pistol (used for running races) because it ensures his luggage will never be lost or messed with.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#83

Post by travisjungroth »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #70
freddie_mercury wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is explained in the article. "He said a search vehicle was driving past at 70 kilometres per hour on the Great Northern Highway when a detection device revealed radiation."

I would have loved to see their reactions when they found it.

Cut to a cargo van with Australians in radiation suits in the back.

Geiger counter clicks.

“I think that’s it.”

The end.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#84

Post by sh4rks »

lqet wrote: post #39
ivan4th wrote: post #27

BTW, there was an accident in Ukraine (Soviet Union at the time) related to a radioactive capsule that ended up in the wall of an apartment building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accide...

> The apartment was fully settled in 1980. A year later, an 18-year-old woman who lived there suddenly died. In 1982, her 16-year-old brother followed, and then their mother. [All from leukemia]. [...] A new family moved into the apartment, and their son died from leukemia as well. > A child's bed was located directly next to the wall containing the capsule.

I wonder what happened to that child

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#85

Post by defrost »

flangola7 wrote: post #80
defrost wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they certainly FUBAR'd and lost brownie points when they blew up Juukan Gorge. Let's not forget they're sitting on $64 billion US worth of Copper in the US on native lands either.

Also having a labor mass murder in their name

Slave labor under the Romans at Rio Tinto from 206 BCE onwards for two hundred years, or the 1888 Zalamea massacre, or the still linguring toxic legacy of the Panguna mine in PNG?

It's such a persistent ongoing problem with mining that I'm personally more inclined to blame the collective detached nature of consumers that demand products and yet turn a blind eye to the sourcing of that which they demand.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#86

Post by flangola7 »

MrDresden wrote: post #61
martynr wrote: post #57

Does anyone else feel like this is slightly overblown? From my perspective it was a localised and relatively limited risk and had fairly obvious and achievable corrective actions with a relatively good chance of success. It intrigues me that this seems to be perceived as something so calamitous/ risky.

On the world stage, this is not even a small blip. But the fear of radiation is a deep seated one, cultivated over the last 80 years by constant bombardment (pun intended) of information and media showing the dangers and hazards of runaway nuclear fission.

You have a point but orphan sources are pretty legitimately scary, and have historically caused many horrible deaths and even more (survivable) suffering, often with the victims having no idea what is happening to them.

Radiological dangers are uniquely hazardous - bacteria and viruses dry out and die, poisons and acids can be neutralized. Almost every other hazard on Earth can be eradicated with nothing more than a good hot fire. But unstable isotopes answer to no one but time.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#87

Post by krisoft »

iamtedd wrote: post #73
martynr wrote: post #57

Does anyone else feel like this is slightly overblown? From my perspective it was a localised and relatively limited risk and had fairly obvious and achievable corrective actions with a relatively good chance of success. It intrigues me that this seems to be perceived as something so calamitous/ risky.

"Localised"? Along a route 1400 km long? That's approximately the distance between New York City and Atlanta, GA. Or London, UK to Monaco.

Not in that sense. Localised in the sense that the dangerous zone was limited to a few tens of meters radius, and was unlikely to spread. As opposed to an airborne, or water soluble contamination which can spread to a wide area as the winds or the ground water flows.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#88

Post by ggm »

antihipocrat wrote: post #75
dabiged wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are missing the context around nuclear anything in Australia. We have no nuclear powerplants. We have no nuclear submarines. Large portions of the country are staunchly against mining uranium. Most people don't know We operate a single nuclear reactor that only produces medical isotopes. There is no nuance on anything nuclear here because it is almost completely absent from the country.

I don't disagree that nuclear anything is a big deal, but just wanted remind everyone that the British tested their nuclear bombs in the outback.. and Australia has ordered some nuclear subs.

Nuclear powered subs, there is no intent or request to provide nuclear weapons. It is not unusual for nuclear capable vessels to visit Australia and in the usual "will not confirm or deny" sense nobody is going to speak to visiting vessels with ICBM or tactical nuclear weapons.

But the formalism remains: Australian defence forces are not overtly seeking nuclear arms to operate under the Australian flag.

Re: Missing radioactive capsule found in WA outback after frantic search

#90

Post by defrost »

nl wrote: post #60
defrost wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing that's because you don't work in a 800 million tonne per annum mining industry that routinely ships heavy equipment 1,000 - 2,000 km backwards and forwards and has done so for 50 years. The equipment was logged when loaded on the 11th, the load sat and then travelled for a couple of days and was unloaded and then sat until it was first inspected (to have the capsule replaced) at which point the loss was…

Dangerous items should be prioritised.

Sure:

    BHP Billiton has claimed a West Australian record for the biggest open cut mine blast after detonating 11 million-tonnes of iron ore at its Jimblebar mine. More than 50 hectares of ground at the Pilbara mine was set off with more than 6,400 detonators.
The explosives used to create small atomic bomb scale blasts are carefully watched, as are the toxic chemicals used in gold processing, the crushers and screens which can make jam out of people, the HV electrics that can discharge and kill, the many propane tanks that can rupture and explode, the unstable stope slopes that can collapse and bury, ...

Come to think of it, everything about heavy mining is dangerous.

No one in W.Australian mining history has yet been killed by a stray Cs-137 source so in realistic terms they come a long way down the list in a domain that has seen hundreds of deaths per annum in the past.

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