Thieves Who Stole Cobalt-60 Will Soon Be Dead 923
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Washington Post reports that the carjackers who set off international alarm bells by absconding with a truckload of highly radioactive cobalt-60, used in hospital radiotherapy machines, most likely had no idea what they were stealing and will die soon from exposure. The robbery occurred as the cobalt-60 was being driven from a public hospital in the border town of Tijuana to a storage facility in central Mexico. While waiting for daybreak at a gas station in the state of Hidalgo the drivers were jumped by two gunmen who beat them and stole the truck. "I believe, definitely, that the thieves did not know what they had; they were interested in the crane, in the vehicle," says Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist with Mexico's nuclear safety commission. The prospect that material that could be used in a radioactive dirty bomb had gone missing sparked an urgent two-day hunt that concluded when the material, cobalt-60, used in hospital radiotherapy machines, was found along with the stolen Volkswagen truck. The cobalt-60 was found, removed from its casing, in a rural area near the town of Hueypoxtla about 25 miles from where the truck was stolen. Jimenez suspects that curiosity got the better of the thieves and they opened the box. So far the carjackers have not been arrested, but authorities expect they will not live long. "The people who handled it will have severe problems with radiation. They will, without a doubt, die.""
Re:Tough luck.. (Score:3, Informative)
Forget Karma, this is natural repercussions of actions.
Re: isn't it possible to detect (Score:5, Informative)
Geiger-Mueller detectors work on the photoelectric effect. Point source radiation is an inverse square law. You wouldn't detect this stuff even a few miles away. Reactors hardly release any isotopes. It's the thermals that show up on satellites
Re:hmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
It wasn't an X-ray machine though, but a device for radiotherapy.
Fortunately, X-ray machines are harmless when powered down.
Re:They will, without a doubt, die... (Score:4, Informative)
I think it (gamma rays) was all that was needed to turn Bruce Banner green (when angry)
There was also an 'Invisible Man' series where it was caused by radiation. (starring David (UNCLE) Macallum)
Re:Good to see Justice Prevails (Score:5, Informative)
Now, as for this 'cobalt 60 in those drug shipments' concept, it might expose the mules (who tend to be low level and treated as expendable anyway) to enough radiation to kill them, slowly; but the major effect would be on the customers: ie. the coke-snorting Americans whining about them. You wouldn't be the first to suggest this... particular approach, the winning the war on drugs; but I bet you'd learn some interesting things about who does drugs once the casualties start to pile up.
Re:radioactive markings (Score:2, Informative)
I don't know what effect would you possibly want to achieve. If someone was serious about it, you'd be in deep trouble. I'm sure there'd be disciplinary consequences for putting hazardous items in a food fridge. If you're, on the other hand, putting food into a hazardous items fridge, then there'll be Darwinian consequences.
Re:"They will, without a doubt, die." (Score:5, Informative)
They probably don't. They felt nausea after first handling it, then after that passed they felt fine. They will continue to feel fine for maybe one to three days during what is called the "walking ghost" phase, after which their bodies will start shutting down and they die a very messy and painful death.
Re:Tough luck.. (Score:5, Informative)
They could have been intending to use it to make dirty bomb what could have exposed hundreds, if not thousands to such an ugly death.
The dirty bomb, as a weapon of mass destruction, is a myth. Disperse the radioactive material far enough to affect a large number of people, and you disperse the radiation as well. The concentration of radioactive material decreases as the square of the radius of the area of dispersal.
Re:Tough luck.. (Score:5, Informative)
And yet, this seems to be the very premise of America these days.
Re: Tough luck.. (Score:0, Informative)
Whoa! Hold on a second, dude. First, you must realize the majority of Christians in the US are only Christians on Sundays or when the dogma serves to back their beliefs. Second, a belief in a religion doesn't equal the existence of morality or empathy. Clearly. Thirdly, and I mean this most sincerely above all other points, though Christianity is the most popular religion in the US, please don't lump all of us under the same religious umbrella. It makes you look like a right wing Christian from the US, and you don't want that, do you?
Guns and Love,
An atheist stuck in the southern US.
Re:Darwin (Score:5, Informative)
I nominate these guys for the Darwin award!
These guys are amateurs compared to the Mexican scrappers who sold hospital equipment containing 6,000 pellets of cobalt-60 for scrap. The machinery was then processed into rebar which was in turn was used in god knows how many homes in Mexico and the USA as well as metal furniture that ended ups as far away as Canada. The Mexicans even found pellets of cobalt-60 embedded into the asphalt surface of roads in Sinaloa and 109 houses had to be torn down and disposed of as radioactive waste. All in all some 5000 metric tons of steel were contaminated ... as far as is known. According to a documentary I watched about this incident there is a good possibility that there are still contaminated houses and furniture out there. The incident only came to light when a truck with a load of contaminated rebar drove past a Los Alamos laboratories radiation checkpoint and set of a whole bunch of alarms. One person died of bone cancer, another 4 were injured and least 10 individuals received significant exposures and some scrapyard workers became sterile. There is also a good chance that many more people either will, or already have, developed cancer since it took about a year to discover this snafu and even longer to track down all the contaminated material already in use. This story made me think about how US Homeland security worries about 'dirty bombs'. The only thing that still amazes me about that particular contingency is that it hasn't happened yet because highly radioactive material is apparently very easy to come by. The Juarez incident caused radiation sensors to be installed at all major border crossings but one wonders if this has been extended to every single crossing along the US/Mexican border. Either way, I'd be worried.
Re:tragic lack of prevention (Score:5, Informative)
In this particular case, and especially given the amount of crime in Mexico, it does not surprise me that the truck would be unmarked. And it doesn't really matter if the cargo is marked: carjackers aren't going to rob you at gunpoint and beat you up then take the time to look at the cargo and see if it is worth stealing. They are just going to drive off. I am surprised that the hospital didn't at least hire a security service to escort the shipment; I would assume even(maybe even especially) in Mexico contractable security services are common. Maybe they just aren't trustworthy or capabale enough?
Re:Good to see Justice Prevails (Score:4, Informative)
"ie. the coke-snorting Americans whining about them. You wouldn't be the first to suggest this... particular approach, the winning the war on drugs; but I bet you'd learn some interesting things about who does drugs once the casualties start to pile up."
Yes, a lot of Americans and Europeans would die. And I bet a lot of Canadians would as well.
I guess you're too lazy to read up on the subject and instead jump straight to bashing Americans. I know its easy and makes you feel better about yourself. But please try to at least make an effort to sound like a smug, smart ass. Here, I have done the work for you, since you appear to be incapable of doing it yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Effects_internationally [wikipedia.org]
Improved cooperation of Mexico with the U.S. led to the recent arrests of 755 Sinaloa cartel suspects in U.S. cities and towns, but the U.S. market is being eclipsed by booming demand for cocaine in Europe, where users now pay twice the going U.S. rate.
OOPS! Bet you didn't see that one coming ... did you?
http://newamericamedia.org/2013/02/mexican-drug-cartels-eye-spain-as-their-new-home.php [newamericamedia.org]
http://www.mexicogulfreporter.com/2013/04/mexican-drug-cartels-have-strong.html [mexicogulfreporter.com]
http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/mexican-drug-cartels-eye-europe-238202.html [irishexaminer.com]
Sorry to be a dick but as an American I am tired of ignorant people outside of the USA painting every American as an ignorant slob.
Re:Tough luck.. (Score:4, Informative)
> I looked at a datasheet for cobalt 60 apparently you have to come into physical contact. Looking at it shouldn't do them much harm.
You need to throw away that datasheet and get a better one. :)
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/isotopes/cobalt.asp [cdc.gov]
Cobalt 60 emits gamma radiation, fairly energetic, which means you only need to be in proximity to it to suffer ill effects. I saw a chart on another site a while ago that said standing within 1 meter of the Co-60 for longer than a few minutes would result in a serious exposure. Being that close to it, without touching it, for more than 30 minutes to an hour would almost certainly be fatal.
The sad thing is, the guys probably didn't know what they were handling and are almost certainly dead by now. I'm frankly surprised that they didn't find the bodies near the site, because after about 15-20 minutes of direct exposure to that much Co-60, they would have already begun feeling the effects -- severe headaches, nausea and diarrhea.
Re:hmmm... (Score:5, Informative)
Goiana was Cesium-137.
There have been several incidents with Cobalt-60 sources, including one in 2010 in Dehli, India, and another in 2000, in Thailand. And in some cases, the radioactive material has ended up being recycled into new products; for example - incidents which actually happened: water-dishes for pets, and belt-buckles sold from discount websites. In these cases, the radioactivity was detected by random spot-checks. There are probably products out there that have incorporated recycled radioactive substances, which made it through spot-checks and are sitting in people's homes, making them sick - and there is no way for us to know.
With regard to the cobalt 60 source: Wikipedia says it was 111 Tbq.
"Example: a 60Co source with an activity of 2.8 GBq, which is equivalent to 60 g of pure 60Co, generates a dose of 1 mSv at one meter distance within one hour."
A 1 Sv dose in 1 hour, is lethal.
Extrapolating 111 TBq to 2.8 GBq; (111,000/2.8 = 39,642 ...); so multiply 1 mSv by that, and you get 39.6 Sv per hour.
If they took it out of it's casing, they'd receive a lethal dose of radiation in less than 2 minutes. (depending on how close they stayed, and how long they stayed near it). Staying at least 400 cm away, would mitigate much of the beta particles, but not the gamma rays. Gamma rays are attenuated by the inverse square law, like any radiant energy. So distance is also your friend, but better still, an inch or so of lead.
They would not start feeling symptoms, until an hour or two later. Dizzyness, headache, nausea, vomiting. Later - worse symptoms appear. It will probably take a few days for them to die, and they may seek medical treatment, which may save them, depending on how long they were in close proximity to the unshielded source.