Medical Radioactive Material Truck Stolen in Mexico
December 4th, 2013Update: Found, “But Officials Aren’t Sure Whether Any of the Cobalt is Missing”
Via: CNN:
A pair of thieves in Mexico may have stolen more than they bargained for when they targeted a truck this week.
The stolen vehicle was carrying delicate cargo — a radioactive element used for medical purposes that also can be used to make a so-called dirty bomb.
Mexican authorities said they’d found the stolen truck and at least some of the radioactive cobalt on Wednesday.
But officials aren’t sure whether any of the cobalt is missing, said Juan Eibenschutz Hartman, head of Mexico’s National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
The container containing cobalt was found about a kilometer away from the truck and had been opened, he said.
—
Via: BBC:
A truck carrying medical radioactive material has been stolen in Mexico, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says.
Mexico told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the truck was carrying a “dangerous radioactive source” used for cancer treatments when it was stolen on Monday.
The radiotherapy source was being taken from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a waste storage centre.
It was stolen near the capital, Mexico City.
Mexico’s Nuclear Security Commission said that at the time of the theft, the cobalt-60 teletherapy source was “properly shielded”.
But the commission warned it could be “extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged”.
Local media reported that the truck, a 2.5-tonne Volkswagen Worker, was stolen by armed men at a petrol station in Tepojaco, on the outskirts of Mexico City on Monday morning.
