3 ms·

Just reading the comments I found out about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60_contamination_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.or

Just reading the comments I found out about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60_contamination_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60...

Xunjin 2y ago
Brazil also had an incident like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
- semi-extrinsic 2y ago
  Of note is that the (horrible) Goiania incident had a source with around 74 tera-Bq, the source in the original post here is something like 360 kilo-Bq. So try to visualize the difference between a 360 kilobyte file and a 74 terabyte file. Or the cost difference between a cheap pack of chewing gum and an F-35 fighter aircraft.
  - HPsquared 2y ago
    A factor of 200 million.
  - KennyBlanken 2y ago
    There's also the small matter that the Goiania incident involved a gamma source, and the source here is an alpha source, of which all the radiation is blocked by an inch or so of air. There's some hand-waving about the source self-sputtering. It seems highly unlikely that the source a)is not coated b)is pure enough for that to be a risk Even if it did, the amount of dust generated would be so small it would be inconsequential compared to numerous natural radiation sources, including alpha emitters like radon.
retrac 2y ago
It was not the worst for fatalities, but the one that disturbs me most I think, was the one in the 1980s in Ukraine where an intense radiation source that was lost, worked its way into gravel, that was used for concrete for an apartment building. It was in a panel in a bedroom. A young family died of leukemia. Another family moved in. The son of the man who moved in, soon died of leukemia. He knew about the previous residents, and started looking into it, and eventually they brought in a radiation specialist and a geiger counter. The dose rate was about 0.2 R per hour. Enough to almost certainly be fatal if you slept next to it regularly for even just a few months. Yet low enough that it likely wouldn't cause any acute sickness to anyone simply passing through the room periodically. Particularly insidious. And so it was in the wall for 9 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accide...
- tshaddox 2y ago
  The disturbing thing about the Juarez contamination is that one old radiotherapy machine was able to meaningfully contaminate 6,000 tons of rebar.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    Yeah, and that's why scrap yards in Germany are required by our OSHA equivalent [1] to scan all incoming and outgoing scrap for radiation and that all workers be regularly trained on how to properly deal with contamination. In 2009, these checks led to the discovery of at least 150 tons of contaminated metal across the country, the source here were Indian steel plants who melted down cobalt-60 sources together with regular scrap [2]. [1] https://www.bghm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Arbeitsschuetzer/Gesetze_Vorschriften/Informationen/209-029.pdf https://www.bghm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Arbeitsschuetzer/G... [2] https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/giftmuell-import-strahlenschrott-wurde-ueber-ganz-deutschland-verteilt-a-607937.html https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/giftmuell-import-...
okanat 2y ago
A very similar one happened in Turkey as late as 1998! https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1102_web.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1102_web.p... A hospital sold the Co-60 source they depleted to a company. The company got the license but didn't reexport them to US. They stored the containers in a generic warehouse without even security personnel and lost the track of them. The warehouse got sold and the containers are sold as scrap to members of public who are barely educated if at all. They probably didn't even know what radiation warnings all over the containers mean. They opened up the containers using an oxyacetylene torch in their garden and got contaminated and radiation sickness.
- redeeman 2y ago
  its very very hard to imagine someone that does not know about the radiation symbol
KennyBlanken 2y ago
There is a massive difference between a gamma source that emits so much radiation the sources can be (infamously) engraved with "DROP AND RUN" that will give a lethal dose in tens of minutes to someone close enough to read the text...and a tiny little layer of an alpha-emitting material embedded in a piece of gold foil.

Just reading the comments I found out about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60_contamination_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60...

Xunjin 2y ago

Brazil also had an incident like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

semi-extrinsic 2y ago
Of note is that the (horrible) Goiania incident had a source with around 74 tera-Bq, the source in the original post here is something like 360 kilo-Bq. So try to visualize the difference between a 360 kilobyte file and a 74 terabyte file. Or the cost difference between a cheap pack of chewing gum and an F-35 fighter aircraft.
- HPsquared 2y ago
  A factor of 200 million.
- KennyBlanken 2y ago
  There's also the small matter that the Goiania incident involved a gamma source, and the source here is an alpha source, of which all the radiation is blocked by an inch or so of air. There's some hand-waving about the source self-sputtering. It seems highly unlikely that the source a)is not coated b)is pure enough for that to be a risk Even if it did, the amount of dust generated would be so small it would be inconsequential compared to numerous natural radiation sources, including alpha emitters like radon.

retrac 2y ago

It was not the worst for fatalities, but the one that disturbs me most I think, was the one in the 1980s in Ukraine where an intense radiation source that was lost, worked its way into gravel, that was used for concrete for an apartment building. It was in a panel in a bedroom. A young family died of leukemia. Another family moved in. The son of the man who moved in, soon died of leukemia. He knew about the previous residents, and started looking into it, and eventually they brought in a radiation specialist and a geiger counter. The dose rate was about 0.2 R per hour. Enough to almost certainly be fatal if you slept next to it regularly for even just a few months. Yet low enough that it likely wouldn't cause any acute sickness to anyone simply passing through the room periodically. Particularly insidious. And so it was in the wall for 9 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accide...

tshaddox 2y ago
The disturbing thing about the Juarez contamination is that one old radiotherapy machine was able to meaningfully contaminate 6,000 tons of rebar.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  Yeah, and that's why scrap yards in Germany are required by our OSHA equivalent [1] to scan all incoming and outgoing scrap for radiation and that all workers be regularly trained on how to properly deal with contamination. In 2009, these checks led to the discovery of at least 150 tons of contaminated metal across the country, the source here were Indian steel plants who melted down cobalt-60 sources together with regular scrap [2]. [1] https://www.bghm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Arbeitsschuetzer/Gesetze_Vorschriften/Informationen/209-029.pdf https://www.bghm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Arbeitsschuetzer/G... [2] https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/giftmuell-import-strahlenschrott-wurde-ueber-ganz-deutschland-verteilt-a-607937.html https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/giftmuell-import-...

okanat 2y ago

A very similar one happened in Turkey as late as 1998! https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1102_web.pdf https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1102_web.p... A hospital sold the Co-60 source they depleted to a company. The company got the license but didn't reexport them to US. They stored the containers in a generic warehouse without even security personnel and lost the track of them. The warehouse got sold and the containers are sold as scrap to members of public who are barely educated if at all. They probably didn't even know what radiation warnings all over the containers mean. They opened up the containers using an oxyacetylene torch in their garden and got contaminated and radiation sickness.

redeeman 2y ago
its very very hard to imagine someone that does not know about the radiation symbol

KennyBlanken 2y ago

There is a massive difference between a gamma source that emits so much radiation the sources can be (infamously) engraved with "DROP AND RUN" that will give a lethal dose in tens of minutes to someone close enough to read the text...and a tiny little layer of an alpha-emitting material embedded in a piece of gold foil.