This may make people think twice before they steal a truck
I guess you never know what’s in it.
Federal police and soldiers formed a cordon of several hundred yards around the highly radioactive container of cobalt-60, stolen earlier in the week in a carjacking as the material was being moved from a public hospital in the border town of Tijuana to a storage facility in central Mexico, news reports said.
The carjackers, who set off international alarm bells by absconding with the material, most likely had no idea what they were stealing and will probably die soon from exposure, Mexican authorities said at the end of a brief national scare.
The material had been in a Volkswagon truck that was equipped with a crane. The drivers had been waiting at a gas station until the facility to which they were delivering the material would be opening, when they were jumped and beaten by two men who then stole the truck. Speculation is that the thieves were interested in the crane, but their curiosity about the box most likely will do them in:
The cobalt-60 was found, removed from its casing, in a rural area…Jimenez said he suspected that curiosity got the better of the thieves, and they opened the box…
“The people who handled it will have severe problems with radiation,” he said. “They will, without a doubt, die.”
Darwin award, eh?
Mr. Frank–Exactly, and well deserved.
Incidents of this nature happen periodically in Mexico (Brazil and elsewhere) where there is poor control over medical devices containing radioisotopes. There was one incident back in the late 80s or early 90s in Mexico where the idiots involved ended up causing many people to be exposed to very high doses of radiation from Cobalt-60. In this latest incident it is likely only the idiots involved in stealing the device were so exposed.
However, Cobalt-60 or Cesium-137, which are commonly used in medical devices, are not radioisotopes of choice for making a dirty bomb as both are extremely dangerous to handle. The best choices are yellow cake, the precursor to fissile Uranium, or radioisotopes of Thorium which can be safely handled with minimal precautions and are ideal for spreading contamination over wide areas.
Sounds like another Eric Holder idea to prevent black market nuclear proliferation, that went wrong. Operation Fried and Curious?
“they opened the box…”
It wasn’t a simple ‘box’. They had to break open a capsule, not an easly opened box. It was a matter of idiots going to great trouble to open Pandora’s ‘box’ labeled with rad warning symbols. That is a more apt description. The conventional radiation warning symbol, with written warnings in Spanish, were plastered all over this device.
Operation Fried and Curious
Yeah, I have a very black sense of humor – I laughed over that one.
Otherwise – Darwin in action. I think I recall one of the incidents that Parker referred to; an incident in Mexico, where some kids found a broken medical device in a dump, and thought the interestingly shiny powder in it was a marvelous toy. They played with it, spread it on their skin, IIRC … died of radiation poisoning within weeks.
Well with cobalt-60 there is a bright side…at least they’ll die cancer free.
If you like your box, you can keep it after you open it.
We have to open the box for you to find out what’s in it, Hesus.
DOD has had a problem with counterfeit nuts and bolts–the kind that have to be rigorously tested because they end up in things like high stress joints in aircraft and tanks–and many of those counterfeits were coming from Mexico.
Wasn’t there a story a few years ago about radioactive steel coming from Mexico?
The radiation should’ve been so strong as to begin to incapacitate the thieves right there on the spot.
They’re toast.
There was something similar that happened in Thailand about 10 years ago when I was working over there. Some scrap metal dealers got a hold of some cobalt-60 from somewhere, without knowing what it was. They tried cutting it up, but started feeling really sick. Within days, at least four of them (as I remember the story) were dead, and a couple of others were in really bad shape. I don’t know if they pulled through or not. As in Mexico, it was medical waste that wasn’t properly disposed of, although I don’t recall theft being involved, just negligence.
Nice security apparatus. I’m sure Al-Q is noticing.
When I read about this last night, I vaguely recalled an earlier contamination incident. A couple of commenters at Ace of Spades filled in the details. It was in Brazil, not Mexico. Here is the Wikipedia article:
Goié¢nia accident
}}} Sounds like another Eric Holder idea to prevent black market nuclear proliferation, that went wrong. Operation Fried and Curious?
C’mon now. This is the Obama admin. You can’t name something like this and not be stupidly, pointlessly offensive about it.
“Operation Mexican Fried Beans”.
“Human Beans”… geddit? 😀
Must have thought copper inside!
Rich!
I want to see some bodies.
Pandora, call your office.
KRB
There was even more serious incident in Mexico, when cobalt-60 containing medical equipment was delivered to metal scrapping yard, went to melting furnace and steel rods for reinforced concrete were produced from it. There were high incidence of children leukemia in social housing project which triggered alarm, and only then the radioactive rods were detected and several high-rise buildings were demolished and all the rubble buried for centuries in a special spot.
““they opened the box…”
It wasn’t a simple ‘box’. They had to break open a capsule, not an easly opened box.”
Can’t tell from the quote.
Usually the lead capsule is itself packaged in a lead or cadmium container, which is packaged in styrofoam inside a plastic box, which may or may not be packed in a cardboard box.
Which of those vessels were broken isn’t mentioned here, it’s quite possible (even likely) that the inner capsule containing the radioactive material was not breached.
And even that one would prevent exposure at levels harmful except for very long term exposure.
Oh Mike, Kiss Me Deadly….
We have a friend in Mexico who is in industrial and commercial laundry. Somebody highjacked one of their trucks, to find out it was full of dirty hospital linen. Not sure what the street value was.
Obama’s looking for European and Mexican ideas of how to increase security for the economy. Stay tuned for the next expansion.
Parker knows what he’s talking about. Thanks, parker.
Co-60 has a half-life of 5.5 years. Seven half-lives are sufficient for depletion, as a general rule. Not “centuries”.
The absence of security is the real story here. Not just from theft; from accident. And posting a cordon of cops several hundred yards away from the Co is nutso too-it ain’t gonna up and walk off.
And posting a cordon of cops several hundred yards away from the Co is nutso too-it ain’t gonna up and walk off.
Perhaps not, but I’d imagine the cordon of Federales is more to keep to keep the curious or the stupid well away from the Co-60 rather than to ensure it doesn’t go anywhere. From what I’ve read so far, it looks like the thieves were rather less successful than the scrap metal dealers in Thailand that I mentioned earlier in getting up close and personal with their prize. They’ll likely live.
Just one “to keep” would have been sufficient. I even previewed it. Sheesh!
Drudge has it up: the thieves are under medical attention… the contents were entirely exposed to nature… now under quasi-quarantine until such time as the experts can stuff this genie back in the cannister.
I suspect that either the radio broadcasts of alarm or the prompt sufferings of the crew caused them to reduce their exposure.
More details later, I’m sure.
Cobalt-60 emits high-energy gamma-rays, so to reduce exposure to acceptable levels several inches of lead are needed. So it is not about a “capsule” but about lead container with walls more than 4 inches thick. I worked in a laboratory where we irradiated mice with this kind of device, and 10 minutes exposure was almost lethal dose. And mice are many times more resistant to radiation than humans.