Posted on 12/04/2013 3:14:52 AM PST by sheikdetailfeather
A truck carrying potentially "extremely dangerous" radioactive material has been stolen in Mexico, the UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday.
The truck was transporting a cobalt-60 teletherapy source intended for medical use to a storage center when it was stolen on Monday in Tepojaco, near Mexico City, the International Atomic Energy Agency said, according to Agence France-Presse
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Was Eric Holder driving the truck?
Wow. The UN is on it. Blue Helmets to the rescue! (Mega mouth sarc)
The proper term is "undocumented isotopes"!
And you thought glow in the dark tacos were just a fad...
Hopefully, this ends with a few Frito Banditos...and not some jihadis equipped with a dirty bomb.
This is interesting. Does Mexico have a nuclear reactor? If not, where did the radioactive material come from? I suppose it could be from a hospital. Hmmm...
Stuff like this goes missing in Mexico (and I presume other third-world countries) on a regular basis.
About twenty years ago a medical source ended up in a Mexican scrapyard. Residents around the scrapyard suddenly began coming down with rare cancers. The scrap got reprocessed into steel, some of which was used to make cafeteria tables. The whole chain was discovered when some of the tables were delivered to the cafeteria at Los Alamos, where they tripped off the radiation sensors.
Yes, it was a surplussed cobalt-60 teletherapy source from a hospital. As for where the cobalt-60 came from, most comes from Canadian reactors.
I was hoping that there would be some more recent discussion of this on FR. Last night on the news it seemed like ordinary theives who had stolen the vehicle while the driver was pulled over, napping. It didnt seem that they were terrorists who wanted to make dirty bombs or anything. But why did the idiots open them? We’re t they labeled with radioactive symbols? Even little kids know what those mean, I think. First on the radio they were bluntly stating that the person(s) would be dead in 3 days. Then they amended it to say “gravely ill” or some such. I guess that nobody has gone to emergency rooms with radiation sickness yet. They also said it won’t get spread person to person. But it’s still a horror movie scenario. That’s why as bad as things get in this country, I’m grateful that crime isn’t as out-of-control as in Mexico. But give it time.
A message perhaps?
On how easily this material could be stolen for a dirty bomb?
This deed could easily occur again.
With less than benign results.
That’s why the Army should be on the southern border, ready to repel all invaders.
Another reason to give some thought about where the products you buy come from, though its not easy in a global economy.
I wonder if the thieves were illiterate.
I had not heard that the perps opened the teletherapy source, and removed rad material.
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