Australia's radioactive capsule to be moved to storage as investigation starts
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The radioactive capsule will be securely stored at an unidentified facility.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY - A lost radioactive capsule found
The capsule is 6mm in diameter and 8mm long – about the size of a tic-tac sweet.
It was found in the state’s remote north-west on Wednesday.
Verified by members of the Australian Defence Force and sealed in a lead container, the capsule will be securely stored at an unidentified facility.
Investigators are working on piecing together just how it fell from a truck.
The week-long search retracing the truck’s journey involved 100 people from at least five government agencies using specialised radiation detection equipment.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lauded its recovery.
“Little radioactive, tiny little thing that they were looking for like a needle in a haystack. But they found it to their great credit, though,” he told a Perth radio station.
The Caesium-137 capsule lost more than two weeks ago was found when Australian-invented CORIS360 radiation equipment mounted to a car driving along the Great Northern Highway detected gamma rays 74km south of the town of Newman in the state’s Kimberley region.
Using portable detection equipment, officials said the team found the capsule at 11.13am local time on Wednesday, about 2m from the side of the road in an area far from any community.
No one is thought to have been exposed to radiation and the site was not permanently contaminated, officials said.
The capsule was part of a gauge used at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine.
The authorities believe the gauge broke apart on the journey, dislodging the capsule which then fell out of its crate and from the truck, a road train with multiple trailers.
Western Australia’s chief health officer Andrew Robertson launched an investigation on Wednesday and said prosecutions would be considered under state radiation safety laws dating to 1975.
The area where the radioactive capsule was found on Wednesday, near the Australian town of Newman.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A report for Western Australia’s health minister is due in several weeks.
The maximum penalty for failing to safely handle radioactive substances is A$1,000 (S$930) and A$50 per day that the offence continues, though the state government on Wednesday flagged new rules to upgrade penalties.
Officials said any changes would not be retrospective.
Rio Tinto has launched its own investigation and has offered to reimburse the cost of the search. It has also said it will cooperate fully with the official investigation.
Sub-contractors SGS Australia, responsible for the packageing of the gauge, and Centurion, responsible for its transportation, have also said they will cooperate. REUTERS
