Australian authorities are intensifying the search for a missing tiny radioactive capsule that was lost somewhere along a vast desert highway that is believed to be potentially deadly.
The item, which was an 8mm by 6mm silver capsule no larger than a coin, contained Caesium-137, a highly radioactive substance used in mining equipment. On Monday, Rio Tinto, the mining company that was handling the capsule, issued an apology and said it was coordinating with the state government in the search for the missing item.
Missing Radioactive Capsule
The mining company added that it has already checked all the roads in and out of the Gudai-Darri mine site in remote northern Western Australia. It was the area where the device was located before a contractor took it to deliver to Perth, the state capital.
Officials believe that the item, which emits both gamma and beta rays, fell off the back of the transporting truck traveling along an 870-mile section of the Great Northern Highway. Because of the capsule's small size and the huge distances involved in the search, authorities warned that there are only slim chances of them finding the item, as per CNN.
Furthermore, concerns that the capsule may have already been carried further from the search zone have risen, expressing the possibility that it could create a radioactive health risk for anyone who comes across it for the next three centuries.
Australian authorities first raised the alarm on the missing radioactive capsule on Friday and alerted residents to the item's presence. They said the capsule was stored inside a package on January 10 and collected from Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri mine on January 12.
The transport vehicle spent four days on the road and, on January 16, arrived in Perth but was not unloaded for inspection until January 25, when the capsule was discovered missing.
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Potential Health Risks
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency said on Tuesday that it was coordinating with the Western Australian government to search for the capsule. Furthermore, according to Aljazeera, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization sent radiation services specialists and detection and imaging equipment to assist in the endeavor.
In a statement, Western Australia Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson noted that radioactive material is regularly transported around Western Australia under strict regulations. He added that it was extremely rare for a source to be lost.
Darryl Ray, the incident controller from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES), said in a Monday statement that it would take approximately five days to travel the original route along the Great Northern Highway.
Australian authorities said that they suspect that vibrations throughout the transport vehicle's journey caused the screws and the bolt of the storage unit to come loose. This resulted in the radioactive capsule falling out of the package and out of a small gap in the truck.
A senior lecturer in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said that the capsule does not threaten passers-by who do not linger near it. However, officials warned residents to keep a distance of at least five meters from the capsule if they find it as long exposure could result in radiation burns or sickness, said Reuters.
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