I really thought someone (US?) had technology (satellites) that could pinpoint radiation sources, even of this magnitude
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Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
81–90 of 357 posts
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#82Really scary. For those unaware of how badly this kind of situation can end up, read about the horrific Goiânia incident in Brazil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
That story is crazy. Thanks for sharing!
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#83Really scary. For those unaware of how badly this kind of situation can end up, read about the horrific Goiânia incident in Brazil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
Also a close call in Mexico. In this case, they were trying to dispose of the source properly, but the truck was held up and stolen along the way:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248737662...
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Wikipedia, Polonium is 5000 times more radioactive than Radium (just 0.001g of Po emits the same number of particles as 5g of Ra). It has a half life of just 138 days so in only 4.6 years the missing Polonium will be equivalent in radioactivity to Radium, which is known to cause cancer. This doesn't sound like something that should be treated lightly.
I found a polonium-loaded anti-static brush for photography in a box from my parents’ attic. Scared the shit out of me at first. Called the hazardous waste folks and had a fun chat with a perplexed employee. We finally decided that, as it was from the 70’s, it had long since decayed into harmlessness and was fine to throw away.
> polonium-loaded anti-static brush for photography
At first, I was very surprised to hear it's a thing, but apparently it is and one can buy for just $170:
https://amstat.com/products/anti-static-brush-with-ionizing-...
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#85It's gonna be in the last place they look.
Probably not, as they will likely have multiple groups looking and some degree of delayed notification.
Especially if they prank one group by not telling them. :-D
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it’s enormously dangerous to stand a meter from, and people near it won’t even know (eg it could have been picked up in a tyre tread so someone is carrying it around), but radiation and therefore ability detect drops according to the inverse square law so it will be hard to find from much further away. And Australia is big.
Again, hyperbole. "the equivalent of 10 X-rays in an hour" People routinely get exposed to that during their normal job. An x-ray is a fraction of a year's natural exposure from the sun. Airline pilots experience this radiation in a few months at work. The numbers matter. This instance, the device hardly matters. Not as much as a national news report anyway. We'd be better off reading about pay disparity or access to…
It's all sort-of fine until someone brings it home and sticks it on a shelf and thereby kills their entire family. Walking around with this in your pocket will kill you eventually.
This sort of thing has happened before with loose radioactive sources.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found a polonium-loaded anti-static brush for photography in a box from my parents’ attic. Scared the shit out of me at first. Called the hazardous waste folks and had a fun chat with a perplexed employee. We finally decided that, as it was from the 70’s, it had long since decayed into harmlessness and was fine to throw away.
How did you realize it once contained polonium?
It had a big label on it that said “DANGER: POLONIUM. DO NOT INGEST”!
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#88Really scary. For those unaware of how badly this kind of situation can end up, read about the horrific Goiânia incident in Brazil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
That story is crazy. Thanks for sharing!
The best part is how the person responsible for the problem (the director of Ipasgo) could redirect the blame to the owners who tried to prevent the catastrophy doing everything they could - he stopped them to do the right things with the help of cops:
> Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the radioactive material that had been left behind.[7] Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb".[7] The Court of Goiás posted a security guard to protect the site.[8] Meanwhile, the owners of IGR wrote several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), warning them about the danger of keeping a teletherapy unit at an abandoned site, but they could not remove the equipment by themselves once a court order prevented them from doing so.[7][8]
> In light of the deaths caused, the three doctors who had owned and operated IGR were charged with criminal negligence. Because the accidents occurred before the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and because the substance was acquired by the clinic and not by the individual owners, the court could not declare the owners of IGR liable. One of IGR's owners and the clinic's physicist were ordered to pay R$100,000 for the derelict condition of the building. The two thieves were not included as defendants in the public civil suit.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#89Australia: the country where not only the wildlife but even the gravel on the road is out to kill you!
Best reply on this thread. Everything in Australia kills you or at least causes horrible pain. Even that cute platypus or that harmless-looking shell on the beach. And now this.
No moose, bears, wolves, cougars, or other alpha predators in Australia though. About the worst are wild dogs / dingos, though they typically won't be a problem unless they're in a pack.
I'll take Australian dangers over North American every day of the week.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of these? https://georesults.com.au/product/radiation-solutions-rs-125... Or maybe even https://georesults.com.au/product/rs-350-backpack-human-port... I imagine they are both rather expensive.
Radiascan makes an affordable scintillation counter, the RadiaCode 101. https://radiascan.com/ A good intro to what it can be used for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1UZdLVlBXg
Link to their actual product page: https://radiascan.com/products/detector-of-ionising-radiatio...