Home » World » They manage to recover a tiny radioactive capsule that had been lost in Australia – Revista Digital Minera REDIMIN

They manage to recover a tiny radioactive capsule that had been lost in Australia – Revista Digital Minera REDIMIN

The device contains the radioactive substance Cesium-137, used in mining, and was lost while being transported on a truck between two Australian cities.

The Australian authorities reported this Wednesday that they managed to recover the tiny radioactive capsule lost by the Rio Tinto mining company, after a vast and complicated search for this material, which can be fatal.

“I want to emphasize that this is an extraordinary result (…) The search teams have literally found the needle in the haystack,” said the head of Emergency Services in the state of Western Australia, Stephen Dawson, at a press conference.

The representative of the regional government specified that the device, 6 millimeters in diameter and 8 millimeters high, was found this morning about 50 kilometers south of the city of Newman, where a few days ago a truck had picked it up to transport it to the city. from Perth, on a route of about 1,400 kilometres.

Related: Rio Tinto has lost radioactive capsule in Australian desert

Australian authorities detailed today that the device was recovered “safely” and will be transported in a lead container to Newman, where it will be stored until Thursday when it is transferred to a center in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

The tiny capsule contains a “small amount” of the radioactive substance Cesium-137, used in mining, and was lost while being transported between January 10 and 16, the Western Australia Department of Health previously explained.

Authorities warned, in a previous alert, about the risks of exposure to this toxic substance, which include “radiation burns or radiation sickness,” such as cancer.

Related: Australia deploys more experts and teams to search for lost radioactive capsule

The toxic material was packaged on January 10 and the vehicle arrived in Perth six days later, but it was not until the 25th when the cargo inspectors realized that one of the packages was torn and one of those tiny letters capsules had been lost on the way.

Fuente: Emol.com

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