Missing Tiny, Deadly Radioactive Capsule Spurs Nationwide Search in Australia

A tiny cylinder of radioactive material is missing along a stretch of highway in Western Australia after apparently falling off the back of a truck. According to health officials, the cylinder is very small and very dangerous.

03:32 PM – Chemical Spill in RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCE RISK in parts of the Pilbara, Midwest Gascoyne, Goldfields-Midlands and Perth Metropolitan regions: https://t.co/ZSEIQDbkiJ

— DFES (@dfes_wa) January 27, 2023

The cylinder is about 8mm long and 6mm wide. According to officials, a bolt in the back of the truck loosened from the vibrations of the road and the cylinder slipped out. “It’s a small silver cylinder,” Andrew Robertson, WA’s Chief Health Officer said during a press conference. “It does emit a reasonable amount of radiation.”

The capsule is a cesium-137 ceramic source. This is a standardized piece of equipment typically used in industrial mining operations According to Robertson, it would emit the equivalent of 10 x-rays into the human body every hour into someone who was near it. It’s about the same amount of radiation the average person receives just walking around in the course of a year, but delivered in an hour.

The cylinder is missing along a 900 mile stretch of highway in Australia and authorities urged people not to pick it up if they find it. It is missing somewhere here:

It emits both gamma and beta rays to anyone in close proximity. Long term, it could cause cancer. In the short term, it could burn the skin or cause acute radiation syndrome. The WA emergency department wrote in an alert that once the truck arrived to be unpacked, workers realized the capsule was gone.

“The capsule was packaged on 10 January 2023 to be sent to Perth for repair before leaving the site for transport by road between 11 and 14 January 2023,” they wrote. “The package holding the capsule arrived in Perth on 16 January and was unloaded and stored in the licensed service provider’s secure radiation store. On 25 January, the gauge was unpacked for inspection. Upon opening the package, it was found that the gauge was broken apart with one of the four mounting bolts missing and the source itself and all screws on the gauge also missing.”

Officials said “risk to the general community is relatively low, however it is important to be aware of the risks and what to do if you see the capsule.” They are warning people to stay at least 5 meters away from it, to “not touch it,” “not put it in a bag,” “not put it in your car,” and to “seek immediate medical advice … if you have touched the material.”

This is not the first time something like this has happened. A capsule of cesium-137 got lodged in the wall of an apartment building in Ukraine in 1980. It sat there for 9 years, poisoning people who got close to it. Seventeen people were exposed to the radioactive material and four died.