Nuclear material is relatively safe when used, stored, and managed properly. This generally applies to a broad range of situations, from nuclear medicine to nuclear power generation. Some may argue it’s impossible to use nuclear weapons safely. In any case, stringent rules exist to manage nuclear material for good reason.
Sometimes, though, things go wrong, mistakes are made, and that nuclear material ends up going AWOL. That’s the situation that faced authorities in Australia, as they scoured over a thousand kilometers of desert highway for a tiny missing radioactive source with the potential to cause serious harm. Thankfully, authorities were able to track it down.
A Screw Loose
The capsule could have gone missing anywhere along a 1,400 km stretch of road between the mine site and Perth. Credit: EmergencyWA, screenshot
The situation concerned a tiny radioactive source, roughly 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm tall. The round silver pellet contains the radioactive isotope Cesium-137, and puts out harmful quantities of both gamma and beta radiation. The pellet was part of a gauge used for measuring the density of iron ore feed running through mining equipment.
The gauge itself had been transported from a Rio Tinto mining site in Western Australia on January 12, and had made a 1,400 km journey, ending up in Perth on January 16. The capsule was first reported as missing on January 25, when the gauge it was a part of was unpacked for inspection. The gauge was found broken, with a mounting bolt missing along with multiple screws. Authorities concluded that vibrations from the truck caused the screws and bolt to loos ..
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