Posted on 04/16/2015 3:19:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Mexico City (AFP) - Authorities appealed for help among Mexico's population on Thursday to locate stolen radioactive material, the latest theft of such dangerous substances in the country.
The interior ministry issued an alert in five southern and eastern states late Wednesday, two days after a toolbox-sized container carrying the Iridium-192 source was snatched from a truck in a residential parking lot in Cardenas, Tabasco state.
Luis Felipe Puente, the national civil protection coordinator, urged ordinary Mexicans to be on the lookout and notify the authorities right away if they find the material, which is used for industrial radiography to check welding seams.
He noted that in previous similar cases the thieves did not even know what kind of material they had taken. There have been three other cases since 2013 and the material was always recovered.
"Each time that one of these units have disappeared from the hands of companies in charge of them, we have recovered them with the help of the population," Puente told Milenio television.
He urged anybody who finds it to stay away and quickly call the authorities.
Puente posted a picture of the metallic 50-by-30 centimeter container on his Twitter page. The tri-foil radiation symbol is printed in red on a yellow plate with the warning "caution radioactive material."
The theft was reported by the company Garantia Radiografica e Ingenieria on Monday.
- Safe in container -
An official at Mexico's National Nuclear Security and Safety Commission told AFP that the container was among other things that were snatched from inside the truck, which was in a residential parking lot late at night.
The thieves left the vehicle and stole a second truck, said Christian Romero, the commission's deputy director for radiological emergencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Or granted it to them.
This has happened many times. Old medical sources, well loggers, etc... Just some guy looking for a quick buck by snagging a “tool box.”
At least not until they read your announcement in the newspaper, Luis. Now they know they have more than just a toolbox full of tools and probably no shortage of serious buyers.
Half life Ir 192 is 74 days
Not again!!
They look for the person glowing in the dark.
In Mexico, if it is not bolted down, and even then...................
The latest thing from Tabasco, Mexico; hot sauce so hot it glows in the dark.
Iridium-192 is also a strong gamma ray emitter. There are seven principal energy packets produced during its disintegration process ranging from just over 0.2 to about 0.6 MeV. Iridium-192 is commonly used as a gamma ray source in industrial radiography to locate flaws in metal components.[3] It is also used in radiotherapy as a radiation source, in particular in brachytherapy.
Iridium-192 has accounted for the majority of cases tracked by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in which radioactive materials have gone missing in quantities large enough to make a dirty bomb.
From wikipedia
Yup. If you’re thinking we should be worried. Hell yes, we need to be worried, and as usual the MSM makes no mention of this.
What is this? The third time in the last few years?
Have they asked Eric Holder to look in his training camp in Mexico that he set up for ISIS?
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