Missing Cesium Pellet (in WA)

[Citroënbender]

This is intriguing, seems a real convergence of freak events.

Will they find it?

[Tonz]

voted no, meaning not in next 12 months, But concern will start when feral zombie kangaroos start attacking politicians,

[whitelion65]

I haven’t looked into the details, but…

If it’s half as dangerous as press make it out to be, yes, it will be found quickly

If it’s equivalent to 20 smoke detectors, then no, it could take a while.

I’m not voting, cos I’m uninformed as to the details.

[Tonz]

Bell Tower Times
Authorities believe they have located the infamously lost radioactive capsule after reports a Landcruiser numpty vanished into the future after hitting 142kph trying to block several cars from overtaking it.

We spoke to a witness who was losing his **** behind the 200 series for the better part of 20km. He told The Times,
“Yeah typical ****er mate. Was plodding along at 80kph until his selfish little beady boomer eyes spotted the overtake lane ahead. Then he floored it. However, he must’ve picked up the radioactive thingo because as soon as he hit 142kph his tyre marks lit up and he vanished”

Authorities state that instances of time travel are quite rare but weren’t surprised. A spokesperson for the DFES told The Times,

“What we are seeing is a lot of these new fourby owners buying accessories that they don’t need or understand. For most of them it’s MaxTrax or a snorkel but it looks like this boomer got the flux capacitor sports package. So all it needed was the fuel to kick in. We believe he went full Delorean on that stretch of road”

Speaking to a psychic medium, we understand that the Landcruiser found itself in the year 3030 in Perth. She told The Times,

‘Luckily it wasn’t too much of a shock for our time travellers. He is comfortable knowing not much has changed. Freeway roadworks are still going, McGowans held office for 1000 straight years and we just got a Five Guys burger chain. There was a line all the way to the Nullabor for it”

For the time being, the state can breathe a sigh of relief as the radioactive menace is safely isolated 1000+ years into the future. More to come.

[kevino]

Vry fst cruiser.
Great write up

[Charliewool]

What I don’t understand is how it “fell off the truck”?
Will driver be charged with “unsecured load”?
Wasn’t it dog & chained down correctly?
And, yes I KNOW the dimensions of the thing, but it still don’t make sense…

[ford71V8]

My thoughts too...how does it fall out the truck?

They have these things sitting in the cupholders and rolling around on the floor?

[jaydee]

I'm in WA, this is a weird story.
It was supposed to be in a small instrument which are regularly sent to Perth for recertification or something.
They found the instrument casings 4 screw were undone.
The box it was in was not secure, which was in a crate on a pallet, on a truck.
Several days after it arrived they got around to unpacking said crate to find the crate showed signs of damage.
Somehow this tiny little thing fell out of it's casing, got out of it's box and then fell out of the crate, off the back of the truck and flew away.
This has aliens written all over it, ET trying to get home.

[prktkljokr]

Nephew works for Rio, he says they dont even know if it was even in there when it was sent.

[aussiblue]

I'm now glad I have a couple of Soviet Chernobyl era nuclear radiation dosimeters i bought many years ago on ebay.

They were made in 2006 so are out of calibration but still rapidly click and show low readings with luminous paint and mildly radioactive rocks in my childhood rock collection. I think I will do a walk down my street just to check there are no significant readings. Probably less than 1 in 100 trillion chance but no harm in running the process.

Why did I buy them? A) to check out the level of radiation in some slightly radioactive material in my childhood rock collection; B) to ensure the Red bricks in our kitchen were not some of the ones mistakenly made by Midland Brick from radioactive ( Alcoa radioactive red mud in the early 1980’s that have never been found). Apparently as least three houses was entirely build with these bricks but were never located, and C) To check out some Ukrainian and Russian curios I bought on line (including a couple pretty hand painted enameled Russian plagues with Cyrillic instruction on how to use an old Russian gas stove). A friend got a shock when he borrowed them to check out his rock collection; he decided it was not safe to have at his home had to contact the Mines Department to arrange disposal of some unrefined uranium ore used to make yellowcake.

[hayseed]

What I don't understand Is. How can they be so certain It Fell off the Truck during that 1400Km Trip..??

I would've thought; If it worked It's way out of the Crate on the Pallet It would end up on the Floor of the Truck & could've vibrated/Shook itself just about anywhere on the Truck. Then got transferred to whatever Freight was on the truck in the 2 Weeks between the Crate being delivered & the capsule found to be Missing..

It could be anywhere,,,

[marty351]

So it fits inside the 0 of a 10 cent coin?

[CoupeKing]

Well, someone isn't getting invited to the end of year work party.

[tweeked]

Nasty stuff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramat...gical_accident

[Tonz]

Originally Posted by marty351

So it fits inside the 0 of a 10 cent coin?

no it doesn't, its gone missing. Oh you mean it 'could' fit

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Doing a bit of reading on this yesterday and I found some information which was a little surprising, but logical when you think about it:

Each month, the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) ships some 2,000 packages containing nuclear medicine around Australia.

Radioactive sources which are lost, stolen, or otherwise leave regulated control are known as “orphan sources”. Each year, the CNS Global Incidents and Trafficking Database records 150 or so such incidents around the world.

This was the most surprising fact:

Who remembers Australia’s last orphan source incident? It occurred in 2019, when a radioactive moisture detection gauge was taken from a ute in Ipswich. As far as I know, it has never been found.

Note: "I" in the above context is:
Edward Obbard
Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering, UNSW Sydney

Full article

[whitelion65]

"The source has an activity of 19 gigabecquerels,"...

quite highly radioactive, which leads me to think it should be relatively easy to locate, IF the accidental loss story is to be believed.

The Ipswich incident would be a neutron probe, which is probably being used for its intended purpose.

Who would want the Caesium.......

[Citroënbender]

I’m tipping some grey nomad has pulled up on the roadside for a cuppa, looked down and “realised” he’s dropped a hearing aid battery when reaching into his pocket.

[aussiblue]

The Alcoa red bauxite mud brick houses incident seems very minor in comparison https://redmud.org/utilisation/industrial-uses/ Although they have never been able to locate the houses allegedly built with the radioactive bricks.

[aussiblue]

’m tipping some grey nomad has pulled up on the roadside for a cuppa, looked down and “realised” he’s dropped a hearing aid battery when reaching into his pocket.

My hearing was not so good until then. Cleared up that nasty psoriasis in the ear canal,

[AMB]

I'm picturing the vessel at about the size and shape of a keg of beer. Strapped down on the back of an open trailer. Not secured properly, bounced around and finally came loose, rolled off into the scrub at 120 km/hr. Its like when you're at the workbench and drop something on the floor. It doesnt just land there somewhere close to your feet, it likes to roll to the other end of the shed and hide behind something. I vote they wont find it for a long time.

Edit. Just did some reading, seems like the vessel was only 8mm long! I knew it was small but thought the pellet would have been inside a large isolating container.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Originally Posted by whitelion65

"The source has an activity of 19 gigabecquerels,"...

quite highly radioactive, which leads me to think it should be relatively easy to locate, IF the accidental loss story is to be believed.

The Ipswich incident would be a neutron probe, which is probably being used for its intended purpose.

Who would want the Caesium.......

The article I linked to earlier suggests that being 1m away from the capsule doesn't see much radiation. That, to me, suggests it's a lot harder to find than what it first sounds.

What’s the risk?
The source doesn’t pose much of a danger to casual passers-by. If you were standing a metre away from it for an hour, you would receive a radiation dose of around 1 millisievert. That’s about one-twentieth of the dose people who work with radiation are allowed to get in a year.

If you were much closer to the capsule, say 10cm or so, you’d be getting around 100 millisievert per hour, which could do you some real damage.

[FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0]

Can't edit my previous post.

And this from an ABC article:

Dale Bailey, professor of medical imaging science in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital, has likened the search to "finding a needle in a haystack".

"Radiation detectors on moving vehicles can be used to detect radiation above the natural levels but the relatively low amount of radiation in the source means that they would have to "sweep" the area relatively slowly," Professor Bailey says.

[aussiblue]

Well, despite the extremely remote likelihood I took my Geiger counter and dosimeter for a complete lap in both directions around my Street (a Crescent). Nothing found although I did have two false alarms:

a) The reading number on one meter kept increasing as I left my house and approached my neighbour's red dust covered camping trailer (definitely suspect); but it did the same thing as I walked away and then I remembered the readings were cumulative.

b) The other meter ticks and synchronously flashes a LED at a rate determined by the level of immediate radiation exposure. Suddenly, there was this rapid ticking at increasing volume. But the LED wasn't flashing and I realised that the wind was blowing a dry and crispy leaf along the road behind me making a ticking noise as it bounced along the bitumen.

Well at least I continue to provide amusement for my neighbours.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by jaydee

It was supposed to be in a small instrument which are regularly sent to Perth for recertification or something.
They found the instrument casings 4 screw were undone.
The box it was in was not secure, which was in a crate on a pallet, on a truck.

Some people really DGAF while on the job, do they? Whoever prep'd it for transport should be given the boot. Instruments are sensitive equipment, they need to be packed securely enough to cope with transport.

[whitelion65]

Originally Posted by FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0

The article I linked to earlier suggests that being 1m away from the capsule doesn't see much radiation. That, to me, suggests it's a lot harder to find than what it first sounds.

The key points here are;
19 gigabecquerels
gamma emmission

I don't care what Poindexter's half-arsed opinion is!

[XR Martin]

Steve Grahame from outback truckers was probably driving.

[hayseed]

LOL..

https://www.theshovel.com.au/2023/01...ctive-capsule/

[burnz]

doesn't that crap turn to liquid at room temp?

[Charliewool]

Found!!