- Writing
- BBC News World
image source, Government of Western Australia
Australian authorities announced Wednesday that they managed to find a small radioactive capsule that had disappeared last week.
Emergency services “literally found a needle in a haystack,” Western Australian state authorities reported.
The device was lost while being transported and the emergency services immediately launched a large search to locate it along a 1,400 km route.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologized for losing the device, which could have posed a serious danger to local people.
The capsule, which measures 6 millimeters in diameter and 8 millimeters long, contains a small amount of cesium-137, which can cause skin damage, burns or radiation sickness.
The emergency services used specialized equipment, including radiation detectorsduring the search.
In announcing the find Wednesday, state emergency services paid tribute to “interagency teamwork in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
A huge search area
The device was being used at a mine in the remote Kimberley region. The Rio Tinto company promised last week to launch an investigation into what happened.
The search area for the lost capsule was enormous, roughly equivalent to the distance by road from Caracas to Bogotá or from Washington DC to Orlando, Florida, in the United States.
image source, DFES
The lost capsule is smaller than an Australian 10p coin.
The device is part of a density meter, which is common in the mining industry.
It was being used at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine in the remote Kimberley region.
The meter was being transported by a contract company, which collected it from the mine site on January 12 for transfer to a storage facility in the north-eastern suburbs of Perth, Australia.
When it was unpacked for inspection on January 25, the indicator was found to be broken and the radioactive capsule was not there.
It was also missing one of the four mounting bolts and screws.
Authorities said vibrations during transit may have caused the bolts to loosen, causing the capsule to fall through gaps in the shell and truck.
