searching for a needle in a haystack? Hold our beer!

[Captain Ketamine]

I had wondered whether it was Caesium 137 that Goldfinger intended to use for his dirty bomb in Fort Knox to make that gold supply unusable and ensuing his supply would increase in value. But I might be wrong some other dirty or salted bomb material. (? Cobalt isotope).

I suppose as it’s a small piece the distance a detector needs to be to the source is relatively close to be able to differentiate from background irradiation, making it a laborious process for those on the hunt.

 

[ShortForBob]

I had wondered whether it was Caesium 137 that Goldfinger intended to use for his dirty bomb in Fort Knox to make that gold supply unusable and ensuing his supply would increase in value. But I might be wrong some other dirty or salted bomb material. (? Cobalt isotope).

I suppose as it’s a small piece the distance a detector needs to be to the source is relatively close to be able to differentiate from background irradiation, making it a laborious process for those on the hunt.

Trouble is that the truck carrying it traveled on the 8th and 9th of Feb.
It's loss wasn't discovered (or reported) until two weeks after.
It's assumed it went missing on the road, but not necessarily so.
Thing could be anywhere.

Ah well, by the time we get a formal enquiry sorted, it will ether have been buried in sand, rolled down a drain in Sydney, two headed cockies being sighted in Brisbane or people will be turning up with mysterious headaches and bleeding gums. What would the half life be? weeks? months? years?


edit. The capsule’s radioactive material, which emits both gamma and beta rays, has a half-life of 30 years

 

[LB 15]

Ooooo it looks like I have really upset the upset able.

So what's going on LB? That chainplate leak you can't fix start an argument with the child bride?

You can tewl unka goodwibes, I won't tewl mummy.

Good lord! Did you find the canister and use it as a suppository?

 

[Goodvibes]

Hmm, my thinking too. Someone nicked it?

No, not convince it was nicked, but the absence starts us chatting. Something other than a damaged freight container would have to be going on. There is several layers of physical shielding. Serious shielding.

No one outside of either the manufacturers or a major facility would be able or allowed to expose a source.

 

[ShortForBob]

No, not convince it was nicked, but the absence starts us chatting. Something other than a damaged freight container would have to be going on. There is several layers of physical shielding. Serious shielding.

No one outside of either the manufacturers or a major facility would be able or allowed to expose a source.

well assuming that the gauge it managed to fall out of was not being carried on a flat bed truck (purple) that little pellet had a lot of wiggling through holes to do.

It's very strange.

 

[Goodvibes]

Good lord! Did you find the canister and use it as a suppository?

A disturbance in the force I sense. Help you it will to share.

 

[Goodvibes]

This pic from the ABC is a tad alarmist at this point. That kit won't stop radiation, and if it had been run over by a road train and breached, standing upwind would be better than trusting the filter.

Good photography though, they would only don that shit when they knew where it was. Fucking hot in NW WA this time of year.

If they don't find it, it will increase the number of 'No Camping' signs!

 

[El Borracho]

Every few years that radioactive Cesium reminds us of human carelessness. It gets lost, and found, over and over. Silently killing people with cancers. Lost on a 1400 km highway is typical carelessness. More common is it gets recycled into steel products and is never found again except for randomly killing whomever buys the steel products containing it.

 

[Goodvibes]

The radiation monitoring badges we had were tested every month. Same as your dentist wears for an x-ray.

Despite instructions on how to use them, some fuckwits occasionally stored their badges in the security case that the nuclear densometers were transported in. The excuse was, "so that I knew where it was" This sometimes triggered an alert after the badge returned a 'Fatal' dose reading.

Those people usually were not allowed to operate one again, showing no respect for the danger.

 

[Se7en]

This pic from the ABC is a tad alarmist at this point. That kit won't stop radiation, and if it had been run over by a road train and breached, standing upwind would be better than trusting the filter.

Ah - that's SCBA gear, not just a filter.
I assume that the whole get up is just to prevent inhaling / absorbing the material, as none of it will do anything for gamma radiation.

 

[Alhadder]

The radiation monitoring badges we had were tested every month. Same as your dentist wears for an x-ray.

Despite instructions on how to use them, some fuckwits occasionally stored their badges in the security case that the nuclear densometers were transported in. The excuse was, "so that I knew where it was" This sometimes triggered an alert after the badge returned a 'Fatal' dose reading.

Those people usually were not allowed to operate one again, showing no respect for the danger.

My father possibly supplied those radiation monitoring badges if you were using them from about 1998 to 2006. Haven't chatted to him about this incident yet but will probably do so shortly.

 

[Goodvibes]

My father possibly supplied those radiation monitoring badges if you were using them from about 1998 to 2006. Haven't chatted to him about this incident yet but will probably do so shortly.

I stopped using them by then but managed people who did for a while longer. Did all the nuc training and was involved in calibrating them as well.

Shops are still using them I see as I pass through construction sites, but I read today that the trend O/S is to move to non-nuc alternatives due to the high cost of managing anything radioactive.

 

[Goodvibes]

Ah - that's SCBA gear, not just a filter.
I assume that the whole get up is just to prevent inhaling / absorbing the material, as none of it will do anything for gamma radiation.

OK, so that version carries it's own air?

Wasn't our turf, if anything went wrong we knew who to call.

 

[Se7en]

OK, so that version carries it's own air?

Yep - demand valve rather than positive pressure from the looks. So the mask needs to seal pretty well.

 

[Alhadder]

I stopped using them by then but managed people who did for a while longer. Did all the nuc training and was involved in calibrating them as well.

Shops are still using them I see as I pass through construction sites, but I read today that the trend O/S is to move to non-nuc alternatives due to the high cost of managing anything radioactive.

Have chatted with the old man. He doesn't buy the story that it fell out of the back of a truck. Some heads are going to roll at the company contracted by Rio to secure and transport this capsule.

 

[Goodvibes]

Have chatted with the old man. He doesn't buy the story that it fell out of the back of a truck. Some heads are going to roll at the company contracted by Rio to secure and transport this capsule.

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

 

[00seven]

I stopped using them by then but managed people who did for a while longer. Did all the nuc training and was involved in calibrating them as well.

Shops are still using them I see as I pass through construction sites, but I read today that the trend O/S is to move to non-nuc alternatives due to the high cost of managing anything radioactive.

 

[Goodvibes]

And one of the reports above claimed that "it could not be weaponised."

As I mentioned, it could be pretty easily, they know that. No boom, but ...

 

[Alhadder]

Auntie has published another story on the subject

A small radioactive capsule has been lost in Western Australia. Here's how authorities plan to find it

It has been five days since authorities found out a dangerous radioactive capsule was missing in Western Australia, but search efforts to find the tiny device across a 1,400 kilometre distance are ongoing.

www.abc.net.au

Hey Meli note this paragraph of the article

"Dale Bailey, professor of medical imaging science in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and Royal North Shore Hospital, has likened the search to "finding a needle in a haystack""

Seems you titled this thread aptly

 

[Marcjsmith]

They will only find it with a Geiger Counter, or a US Spy satellite.

In theory. Two guys in a car one driving, one with Geiger counter. When the needle blips. Stop check it out. Wash rinse repeat for a few thousand miles.

or just wait until the the animals start mutating...more