Australian authorities on Wednesday found a radioactive capsule that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400 km (870-mile) stretch of highway. The capsule was taken to a secure facility in Perth. The radioactive capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed from Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri mine in the state's remote Kimberley region. The silver capsule, 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm long, contains Caesium-137 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour.
[...] Officials from Western Australia's emergency response department, defence authorities, radiation specialists and others have been combing the a stretch of highway for the tiny capsule that was lost in transit more than two weeks ago.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 01, @01:54PM (26 children)
I am still looking for details as to how they actually found it.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Ingar on Wednesday February 01, @02:25PM (3 children)
According to the Belgian (flemish) national news:
According to DFES, the capsule was found at 11u30 local time just south of Newman (northern direction). The exact location is not known.
The capsule was lying about 2 meters from the side of the road, says Darren Klemm of DFES. The tracking vehicle was driving 70 km/h
when the detection equipment picked up a signal. A search team with portable detectors was dispatched.
Source (in Dutch)
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/01/vermiste-radioactieve-capsule-in-de-australische-outback-terugge/ [www.vrt.be]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Wednesday February 01, @03:34PM (1 child)
I assume detection equipment means survey meter sticking out the side of a car.
40mph still pretty fast to get a hit. Surprised they found it while driving. Probably found 10 other radiation sources as well, but never made the news.
I was thinking it would have been interesting if some rockhound with nothing to do found it first and kept it as part of their collection. Wonder how long they would have kept searching.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday February 01, @07:04PM
>40mph still pretty fast to get a hit
I doubt it.
I mean, they said to stay at least 17 feet away to avoid radiation burns, with just driving past at highway speeds being enough to deliver an estimated radiation dosage comparable to an X-ray (100's of millions of photons worth). That thing has got to be glowing like a frigging bank of stadium lights in the gamma spectrum. I'm surprised they took as long to find it as they did.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 01, @05:54PM
A different source in English says much the same thing.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/missing-radioactive-capsule-found-australia-rcna68529 [nbcnews.com]
https://nypost.com/2023/02/01/missing-radioactive-capsule-found-in-australian-outback/ [nypost.com]
The bit I hadn't read (or maybe skipped over) was that the capsule was lying around for ten days, before anyone missed it.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 01, @03:14PM (1 child)
The capsule was found when a vehicle equipped with specialist equipment, which was travelling at 70 km/h (43 mph), detected radiation, officials said.
Portable detection equipment was then used to locate the capsule, which was found about 2m (7ft) from the side of the road.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday February 01, @06:28PM
Presumably, their first scan was for unexpectedly large spikes in radiation levels. If they were confident driving that fast it means a lot of radiation. I do wonder how many search parties were involved in this as such a small item is easily missed without a Geiger counter or other radiation detecting gear. 2m isn't really that far from the road, but every foot presumably does reduce the radiation that's there to detect by a bit.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 01, @03:38PM (6 children)
I didn't find any... which brings out the conspiracy thoughts of: did they actually find it, or did they just drive the road once with Geiger counters, come up empty, and then send in a squad to "find it" to shut down any further debate/worry/political fallout about the subject?
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(Score: 2) by Ingar on Wednesday February 01, @05:51PM (5 children)
The Belgian article notes "Experts from the army verified the capsule using the serial number.", I assume that means they actually found it.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 01, @06:39PM (4 children)
>"Experts from the army verified the capsule using the serial number.", I assume that means they actually found it.
They certainly have told the story "We found it, we're sure this is it." but, lacking transparency in the discovery process (tight highly trained military unit, no embedded independent observers I'm assuming...) we really never will know for sure.
The fact that we never really will know for sure is a testament to the training and discipline of the unit which did the finding. Assuming they are as good as their training is supposed to be, we should be absolutely sure: we just don't know if they really found it, or are telling the story "We found it, we're absolutely sure this is it."
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Wednesday February 01, @07:12PM (3 children)
Yeah, because publicly disclosing the details of how exactly you search for radiological threats is *totally* a good idea.
Heck, there's not even embedded observers in most manhunts.
Given the claimed radiation levels (an X-rays worth just from driving past at highway speeds? Stay at least 17 feet away to avoid radiation burns?) finding it wouldn't exactly be difficult. Stick a gamma-ray meter out the window and start driving until it screams.
Meanwhile, an embedded observer would be worthless for verifying anything anyway - just have someone plant a second capsule someplace and let them watch you "find" that one.
Independent observers are good for two things: making sure known stockpiles are destroyed, and making sure known production-capable facilities, don't. For anything else they're just theater.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 01, @09:39PM (2 children)
>Heck, there's not even embedded observers in most manhunts.
Generally speaking, at the end of a successful manhunt, there's a body that can be independently identified...
>Given the claimed radiation levels (an X-rays worth just from driving past at highway speeds? Stay at least 17 feet away to avoid radiation burns?) finding it wouldn't exactly be difficult. Stick a gamma-ray meter out the window and start driving until it screams.
but:
>Yeah, because publicly disclosing the details of how exactly you search for radiological threats is *totally* a good idea.
Which is it?
>Meanwhile, an embedded observer would be worthless for verifying anything anyway - just have someone plant a second capsule someplace and let them watch you "find" that one.
In this particular case, the embedded observer could bring their own Geiger counter. They could have a live feed from bodycams of the recovery team. Sure, you can always fool a fool, but as it seems to have been conducted we're not even asking the recovery team to make an effort at deception, they can just write a fantasy report and hand in the forged SN capsule that took two weeks to manufacture and deliver to them. Of course, in that scenario, the recently manufactured capsule can just be chucked out on the roadway by whoever in front of the search crew... still, manufacturing a capsule with the appropriate age of decaying isotopes would be tricky to make even a little hard to detect, plus: if the real capsule is still out there somewhere, it has the potential to be found by independent third parties in the future....
>Independent observers are good for two things: making sure known stockpiles are destroyed, and making sure known production-capable facilities, don't. For anything else they're just theater.
I disagree, they make falsification harder, and would at least occasionally catch shenanigans when the actors got sloppy - and when that happens they can step up their observation intensity to make falsification in the future even more difficult.
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday February 02, @04:19PM (1 child)
Knowing the general idea is a huge difference from knowing the details. To start with, the general idea is completely obvious to anyone with half a brain.
The general idea WAS shared, and in fact so were some of the details e.g. they didn't think a geiger counter would cut it so they used... I forget, but it was mentioned in several articles.
You tell me - was there any effort to *prevent* independent observers? That would be suspicious. But it seems a lot more likely that nobody thought it was worth the effort when they're just looking for some trash that was dangerously disposed of.
It's not like we're talking nuclear weapons here - this is something that private citizens routinely use all over the world without even any difficult-to-get certifications.
You ever see roadway teams using one of those yellow "cinder blocks" on a handle that sits on the road? That's a nuclear densometer, and every properly-built stretch of road (and often foundation work) gets repeatedly tested with them while being laid to ensure it's properly compacted for long term durability. And inside every one of them there's a similar capsule of either Cs-137 or Radium-226. We've got three of them at work, and the techs using them aren't exactly national security material.
Finally, how do you figure it would be tricky to manufacture? Just grab one from the same warehouse the original capsule came from. Or if you're really committed, build it yourself - at age X, Y% of the caesium-137 will have decayed into naturally occurring stable barium-137, so just mix in the right amount of Ba-137 into fresh Cs-137 and it's 100% indistinguishable from naturally decayed Cs.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 02, @04:42PM
>how do you figure it would be tricky to manufacture?
You'd need to forge the serial number convincingly, on a capsule with the same mass/age of isotope - so same ratio of active to breakdown elements, if anybody should care enough to look.
Nobody cares to observe yet because nobody cares about coverups because no coverups have been uncovered yet.
Nobody cared about lost capsules at all until people verifiably died as a direct result of mishandling.
Similar thing hit Cobalt60 for medical use in the early 2000s when those kids found this cool glowy stuff in the dump...
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Sourcery42 on Wednesday February 01, @05:09PM
Glowing kangaroo lead them right to it.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday February 01, @07:08PM (7 children)
The more interesting question is how they lost it on the side of a road.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Reziac on Thursday February 02, @02:11AM (6 children)
And why the thing was packaged such that a mechanical failure could result in parts bouncing out of the truck.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by evilcam on Thursday February 02, @04:42AM (5 children)
I believe what happened was vibrations caused a nut to loosen and then the bolt to fall out and then the capsule fell through the bolt hole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02, @04:48AM (1 child)
That's why I glue bolts in and strip the nut. That baby ain't going anywhere :)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02, @01:11PM
https://www.forces.net/technology/sea-vessels/mod-investigate-allegations-superglue-used-fix-nuclear-submarine [forces.net]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday February 02, @06:19AM (2 children)
Likely so, but seems to me the whole adventure could have been short-circuited by placing the unit inside, say, a Rubbermaid bin. Or a stock tank. Anything with a seamless bottom.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by evilcam on Thursday February 02, @08:21AM (1 child)
An article from Auntie [abc.net.au] sheds a little more light:
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday February 02, @09:14AM
Yeah, that is more like what I'd expect -- packaging that would keep parts contained even if it bounced clean off the truck.
Guessing it'll boil down to the packing crew being sub-optimal.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Wednesday February 01, @07:46PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-64483271 [bbc.com]
Simple Geiger counter wasn't working, so they got better equipment:
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday February 02, @01:52AM
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-01/australian-radioactive-capsule-found-in-wa-outback-rio-tinto/101917828 [abc.net.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by evilcam on Thursday February 02, @04:40AM
ANSTO (the agency that located the capsule) has a presser if you'd like more in-depth information:
https://www.ansto.gov.au/news/wa-outback-proves-no-match-for-aussie-nuclear-know-how [ansto.gov.au]
Super interesting read from the source, with pictures!
(Score: 1) by Pseudoanonymous Coward on Friday February 03, @01:53AM
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/the-inside-story-of-how-wa-s-tiny-missing-radioactive-capsule-was-found-20230203-p5chlo.html [watoday.com.au]
Here's the local Aussie newspaper. From what I understand the device is a pretty recent invention.
-- A Whale and a Bowl of Petunias jump out of a plane, who hits the ground first? --
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01, @04:55PM (9 children)
Meanwhile the amount of radioactive material and other poisons sprinkled over the Earth daily utterly dwarfs the minuscule capsule. News at 11. No wait, no news at 11.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 01, @06:42PM (1 child)
>the amount of radioactive material and other poisons sprinkled over the Earth daily utterly dwarfs the minuscule capsule.
This one is special. A) because it is unusually concentrated and more inherently harmful than most of what's out there, B) because, due to A), it has special handling procedures that are supposed to keep it safe- but didn't, and C) because news of this one got blabbed to the world, unlike so many military mis-adventures in concentrated isotope handling that are "classified, need to know, national security" matters - you know, the kind of stuff you'd find in piles of documents at Mar-a-Lago, or any other high officials' unsecured residences.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02, @02:06AM
And D) Cs137 is nasty for its intermediate halflife - 30 yearss.
The radiation is intense enough even at low amount of material, yet the half-life is long enough to not afford to wait until the level of radiation drops at safe limits (contrast with Iodine 131, half-life of few days)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01, @07:36PM (6 children)
I'd like to see the radiation detecting truck drive through Iraq or any place liberated by the military lately. Depleted uranium anyone? Feed that shit to your kids.
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Wednesday February 01, @08:26PM (5 children)
The problem with depleted uranium is not radioactivity (although it is slightly), and it would not show up on one of these detectors so easily. The problem with depleted uranium is that it is a heavy metal and is chemically toxic, like lead for example. It ruins your kidneys.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 01, @09:41PM (2 children)
When we worked with "the isotope guys" this was their major point about the handing and refining of Uranium and other isotopes. Sure: radiation is bad, but the real challenges are in the chemical composition. Fluorine kills you quicker than radiation, and it's actually harder to handle safely.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday February 02, @02:16AM (1 child)
Indeed...
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride [science.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 02, @10:45AM
Free shipping on 1kg of FOOF?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 02, @10:23PM (1 child)
Well it can be both! Generally speaking with radioactive materials you are worried about getting it into your blood stream via inhaling dust or whatever.
That's because your skin is actually thick enough to protect yourself from the (beta) radioactivity.
Caesium-137 emits gamma radiation, though. That can penetrate your skin (hence the x-ray comparison) and can give you cancer just by standing near it.
fun stuff! [cdc.gov]
(Score: 3, Funny) by aafcac on Friday February 03, @05:20AM
As long as the source is outside of your body. If it's inside then the skin keeps it in and protects everybody else.