Eureka

A tiny radioactive capsule that was lost in the Australian outback for more than two weeks and posed a “significant public health risk” has been found by the side of the road.

  Guardian

So they say that's where they found it.

The 8mm by 6mm capsule, which fell from a secure device on a truck that was travelling from a Rio Tinto mine site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to Perth, was found south of the town of Newman.

Well, it wasn't secure, actually, was it? If that's what happened to it.

A 20-metre exclusion zone has been established where the device was found, just a short distance from where it began its 1,400km journey to Perth. Authorities will now survey the area for any contamination.

[...]

The Australian defence force is now verifying the small radioactive device by its serial number. It is being stored at a secure location in Newman, before being transported to Perth on Thursday, inside a lead container to shield people from radiation.

And why wasn't it transported that way in the first place? IF that's actually what happened to it.

It was initially detected by staff inside a car that was travelling at 70km/h past the capsule. A handheld radiation device was then used to find the exact location on the ground.

[...]

“It does not appear the device has moved,” he said. “It appears to have fallen off the truck and landed by the side of the road. It is remote enough that it is not near any major community.”

How coincidentally fortunate. Shall we reconsider the rerport:

According to WA authorities, the capsule was packaged on 10 January, transported offsite on 12 January, and the casing it was contained within arrived in Perth on 16 January. It wasn’t until nine days later, on 25 January, that it was discovered missing when the package was unpacked for inspection.

[...]


It is believed a bolt securing the lead-lined gauge containing the capsule worked loose somewhere on the journey – potentially shaken loose by the vibrations of the truck – and the capsule fell through a hole left by the missing bolt.

[...]

Last week, Robertson defended the state government’s decision to wait before informing the public, saying the mine and depot had to be searched and excluded, and the route confirmed.

“It is unusual for a gauge to come apart like this one has,” he said on Friday.

Very. 

Unusual set of circumstances.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 02/02/2023:

A radioactive piece of material that is not currently being regulated – that is, it isn’t under some kind of authority or oversight – is known as an “orphan source”. And while Australia is a highly regulated country, it has had its own orphan sources. In 2019, a density moisture gauge with a radioactive core was stolen from the back of a ute in Ipswich.

[...]

A similar theft was carried out in Campbelltown in 2016. In 2013, there were four separate incidents of radioactive sources getting stuck in a piece of offshore equipment and becoming “deemed irretrievable”.

According to the Australian Radiation Incident Register, there are annual occurrences of radioactive sources being lost, stolen, or found. There was one incident in 2020, six in 2019, another one in 2018, four in 2017 and a whopping 15 in 2016. 10 of those were reports of finding low-level hospital waste.

[...]

One of the most famous international incidents happened in 2001, when three people from the village of Lia in Georgia found two hot metal objects while they were collecting firewood in the nearby forest. They used these objects – later found to be abandoned radioisotope sources – as heaters when they spent the cold night in that forest.

Within hours, the individuals complained of nausea, headaches, dizziness and vomiting.

[...]

In one case study, listed under “transport” rather than “lost/stolen/found”, the register says a decayed radioactive source went missing in transit.

“It eventually arrived at the transport company’s Sydney depot – nine days after it had been shipped,” the register reported.

And that’s just in Australia. Globally, the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies’ global incidents and trafficking database shows there have been 1,205 incidents of “nuclear and other radioactive materials outside regulatory control” since 2013.

[...]

On Thursday, Albanese said it was “quite extraordinary” that they found the capsule.

“Thank goodness … because it was such a strange story, wasn’t it?” he said during an interview with a Perth radio station.

“Little radioactive, tiny little thing that they were looking for, like a needle in a haystack.

“[They] probably shouldn’t have lost it in the first place.”

  Guardian

Probably.