5 ms·

Really scary. For those unaware of how badly this kind of situation can end up, read about the horrific Goiânia incident in Brazil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/

Really scary. For those unaware of how badly this kind of situation can end up, read about the horrific Goiânia incident in Brazil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

fblp 4y ago
That story is crazy. Thanks for sharing!
- csdvrx 4y ago
  The best part is how the person responsible for the problem (the director of Ipasgo) could redirect the blame to the owners who tried to prevent the catastrophy doing everything they could - he stopped them to do the right things with the help of cops: > Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the radioactive material that had been left behind.[7] Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb".[7] The Court of Goiás posted a security guard to protect the site.[8] Meanwhile, the owners of IGR wrote several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), warning them about the danger of keeping a teletherapy unit at an abandoned site, but they could not remove the equipment by themselves once a court order prevented them from doing so.[7][8] > In light of the deaths caused, the three doctors who had owned and operated IGR were charged with criminal negligence. Because the accidents occurred before the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and because the substance was acquired by the clinic and not by the individual owners, the court could not declare the owners of IGR liable. One of IGR's owners and the clinic's physicist were ordered to pay R$100,000 for the derelict condition of the building. The two thieves were not included as defendants in the public civil suit.
  - bonzini 4y ago
    The owners also had left it there for two years. They weren't without blame either.
    - csdvrx 4y ago
      idk but at least they tried to remove it and WARN about the risks, unlike the director who made sure it stayed there. I'd consider it very likely it wasn't moved for 2 years because the director pulled some strings to make sure it'd stay there, consequences be damned
jhallenworld 4y ago
Also a close call in Mexico. In this case, they were trying to dispose of the source properly, but the truck was held up and stolen along the way: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248737662/radioactive-truck-goes-missing-in-mexico-alerts-are-issued https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248737662...
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  > An estimated 300 curies of radioactive cobalt found their way to the two Mexican foundries, one of which manufactured metal table legs for shipment to the largest distributor of restaurant tables in the U.S., while the other produced steel rods used in the reinforcement of concrete building projects. About 600 tons of the contaminated steel were shipped to the U.S. from December 1983 to January 1984." How much is 300 curies?
  - solstice 4y ago
    About 303 g according to the table in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_(unit) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_(unit)
    - bonzini 4y ago
      883 μg/Ci * 300 Ci is less than a gram.
  - bonzini 4y ago
    300 Ci is 11 TBq (terabecquerel), or 11·10^12 decays per second. Co-60 has a half life of 166 million seconds, so it was 11·166·10^18/ln 2 atoms=2.6·10^21 atoms, which is 0.004 moles (a mole is 6.02·10^23 atoms). A mole of cobalt 60 weighs 60 g, so it was a quarter of a gram if I did the calculations right. The ln 2 factor is because the probability of a decay happening in a second is ln 2 divided by the half life.
    - moffkalast 4y ago
      > 166 million seconds Or 5,2 years
smcl 4y ago
There’s a good Well There’s Your Problem episode about this, if people would rather see a video about it: https://youtu.be/34rdxDgpaaA https://youtu.be/34rdxDgpaaA
- sacrosancty 4y ago
  [dead]
gammarator 4y ago
This source is way less radioactive, though.
sensitivefrost 4y ago
At least Western Australia is incredibly underpopulated and remote.
- hutzlibu 4y ago
  And in the australian outback, there are plenty of other small poisenous things avaiable to kill you, if you are unlucky, so rather bring tall boots and not a geiger counter if you happen to visit and are concerned for your safety.
hncommenter13 4y ago
Here's a another story (2011) of a medical source of radioactivity showing up where it wasn't supposed to be: https://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff-radioactivecargo/ https://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff-radioactivecargo/
berniedurfee 4y ago
The YouTube channel Plainly Difficult specializes in lost radiation source incidents among other disasters.

fblp 4y ago

That story is crazy. Thanks for sharing!

csdvrx 4y ago
The best part is how the person responsible for the problem (the director of Ipasgo) could redirect the blame to the owners who tried to prevent the catastrophy doing everything they could - he stopped them to do the right things with the help of cops: > Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the radioactive material that had been left behind.[7] Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb".[7] The Court of Goiás posted a security guard to protect the site.[8] Meanwhile, the owners of IGR wrote several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), warning them about the danger of keeping a teletherapy unit at an abandoned site, but they could not remove the equipment by themselves once a court order prevented them from doing so.[7][8] > In light of the deaths caused, the three doctors who had owned and operated IGR were charged with criminal negligence. Because the accidents occurred before the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and because the substance was acquired by the clinic and not by the individual owners, the court could not declare the owners of IGR liable. One of IGR's owners and the clinic's physicist were ordered to pay R$100,000 for the derelict condition of the building. The two thieves were not included as defendants in the public civil suit.
- bonzini 4y ago
  The owners also had left it there for two years. They weren't without blame either.
  - csdvrx 4y ago
    idk but at least they tried to remove it and WARN about the risks, unlike the director who made sure it stayed there. I'd consider it very likely it wasn't moved for 2 years because the director pulled some strings to make sure it'd stay there, consequences be damned

jhallenworld 4y ago

Also a close call in Mexico. In this case, they were trying to dispose of the source properly, but the truck was held up and stolen along the way: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248737662/radioactive-truck-goes-missing-in-mexico-alerts-are-issued https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248737662...

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
> An estimated 300 curies of radioactive cobalt found their way to the two Mexican foundries, one of which manufactured metal table legs for shipment to the largest distributor of restaurant tables in the U.S., while the other produced steel rods used in the reinforcement of concrete building projects. About 600 tons of the contaminated steel were shipped to the U.S. from December 1983 to January 1984." How much is 300 curies?
- solstice 4y ago
  About 303 g according to the table in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_(unit) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_(unit)
  - bonzini 4y ago
    883 μg/Ci * 300 Ci is less than a gram.
- bonzini 4y ago
  300 Ci is 11 TBq (terabecquerel), or 11·10^12 decays per second. Co-60 has a half life of 166 million seconds, so it was 11·166·10^18/ln 2 atoms=2.6·10^21 atoms, which is 0.004 moles (a mole is 6.02·10^23 atoms). A mole of cobalt 60 weighs 60 g, so it was a quarter of a gram if I did the calculations right. The ln 2 factor is because the probability of a decay happening in a second is ln 2 divided by the half life.
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    > 166 million seconds Or 5,2 years

smcl 4y ago

There’s a good Well There’s Your Problem episode about this, if people would rather see a video about it: https://youtu.be/34rdxDgpaaA https://youtu.be/34rdxDgpaaA

sacrosancty 4y ago
[dead]

gammarator 4y ago

This source is way less radioactive, though.

sensitivefrost 4y ago

At least Western Australia is incredibly underpopulated and remote.

hutzlibu 4y ago
And in the australian outback, there are plenty of other small poisenous things avaiable to kill you, if you are unlucky, so rather bring tall boots and not a geiger counter if you happen to visit and are concerned for your safety.

hncommenter13 4y ago

Here's a another story (2011) of a medical source of radioactivity showing up where it wasn't supposed to be: https://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff-radioactivecargo/ https://www.wired.com/2011/10/ff-radioactivecargo/

berniedurfee 4y ago

The YouTube channel Plainly Difficult specializes in lost radiation source incidents among other disasters.