Small but dangerous: the capsule contains radioactive caesium.
Mining company Rio Tinto has apologized for the loss of a capsule containing a radioactive isotope during transport in Western Australia.
The capsule contains a small amount of radioactive caesium-137 isotope, which can cause radiation exposure and serious illness if touched.
The population has been warned about the disappearance, and now special search teams equipped with the necessary equipment are trying to locate the container.
However, the state of Western Australia is the largest in the country, occupying a third of the entire continent, and the size of the capsule is 6 x 8 millimeters.
Moreover, it was lost somewhere on the way between the cities of Newman and Perth, which is 1400 km (in Russian terms, approximately the distance of roads from Moscow to Perm or Ekaterinburg).
In general, as they say in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services of Australia (DFES), the capsule is so small that it could easily get stuck in the tread of any passing car and roll… God knows where, like a Tasmanian devil.
The missing capsule is part of a rock density measuring device that is widely used in the mining industry.
The number of bids should remain the same: Rio Tinto mines in Gudai-Darri.
On January 12, the capsule started its journey: the subcontractor was supposed to take it to another facility.
And on January 25, the disappearance was discovered, and it is unclear exactly when the capsule disappeared.
Mining giant Rio Tinto, which has numerous valuable mineral developments in Australia, has apologized and promised to conduct its own investigation into the incident.
“Rio Tinto engaged a subcontractor with the required level of experience and certification to ensure reliable packaging of the device during preparation for shipment from the plant and delivery to the Perth plant,” the company statement said.
“A Geiger counter was used to confirm the presence of a capsule inside the packaging prior to shipment.”
Incidentally, this is not the company’s first serious mistake in Australia.
In September 2020, as part of the mine’s expansion, Rio Tinto management made a decision to blast a 46,000-year-old cave complex in the Juukan Gorge valley.
A scandal erupted, the company’s reputation was severely damaged, and part of the management was forced to resign.
State authorities have issued a radiation alert for the entire state.
According to Western Australia’s chief medical officer of health, Andrew Robertson, contact with the capsule could result in a radiation dose of about 10 roentgens per hour – the same amount we receive in a year just by being outdoors.
The main danger is that someone picks up the capsule without knowing what it contains.
“If you come into contact with this capsule, or keep it close, you can get skin damage, including burns, and if you keep it close for a long time, you can get radiation sickness,” warns Robertson.
However, the road on which the capsule is believed to have been lost runs mostly through a desert where virtually no one lives.
Four-fifths of the state’s population lives in Perth, so the possibility of contact with radioactive material is minimized.