Australia claims to have found “a needle in a haystack” after locating the missing radioactive capsule

Feb. 1 () –

The Australian authorities have confirmed this Wednesday the discovery of a radioactive capsule that disappeared in January when it was transported in the west of the country, which led to the declaration of a health alert within a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

Western Australia’s Minister for Emergency Services, Stephen Dawson, has indicated that the cesium-137 capsule has been found 50 kilometers from the town of Newman and has stressed that “search teams have found the needle in the haystack”. .

“I want to emphasize that it is an extraordinary result,” he said, as reported by the Australian television channel ABC. The capsule has been located by a team from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization and the Fire and Emergency Department.

Australia issued the alert after the capsule disappeared between January 11 and 16 after falling from the truck that was transporting it from a Rio Tinto mine to the city of Perth. The loss was reported about a week later, on January 25.

The capsule, six millimeters in diameter and eight millimeters high, is used in mining equipment and can generate high doses of radiation if it is handled incorrectly, for which the authorities demanded that no one touch it and that, if possible, They kept at least five meters apart.