Irish Examiner view: Deadly needle in a haystack
The 19-gigabecquerel ceramic source can cause skin burns, radiation sickness, and cancer. Picture: Mark Lambie/The El Paso Times via AP
It might only be a fraction of the size of a 10-cent coin, but the vial filled with Caesium-137 that has gone missing in Australia is quite the dangerous thing, both to humans and animals.
This particular vial might not sound like much of a threat, but the 19-gigabecquerel ceramic source can cause skin burns, radiation sickness, and cancer. It has been missing for, well, some time and the authorities don’t know how long.
Supposed to have been contained in a secure device which had been damaged in a mine in the Newman area of the Western Australian Pilbarra, the capsule was then transported 1,400km along the Great Northern Highway to a depot in Perth where it was discovered to have vanished.
It was placed on a pallet on January 10 for transportation, but it was late on January 25 before it was declared missing.
Emergency services are now tasked with finding the veritable needle in a haystack. The 8mm by 6mm radioactive vial is commonly used as a safety device in mining to gauge radiation underground.
We have heard of horrendous mining disasters through time, usually involving loss of life on an industrial scale, but this is a very unusual — and worrying — development on the theme. Let us just hope they find it soon and without harming anyone or anything.
