5 Dec 2013

Stolen radioactive material found outside truck

1:11 pm on 5 December 2013

Police in Mexico have found stolen radioactive material outside a truck that was carrying it in a rural area north of Mexico City.

The National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards said a medical teletherapy machine containing cobalt-60 had been taken out of its steel-reinforced container and left away from the truck.

The International Atomic Energy Agency earlier said the vehicle was stolen on Monday by two gunmen at a service station in central Hidalgo state while it was taking cobalt-60 from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste-storage centre.

Operations director Mardonio Jimenez said on Wednesday the area was cordoned-off by police and the military to prevent contamination and to safely recover the device.

The plan was to return the radioactive material to a sealed case as soon as possible.

Mr Jimenez warned that warn the life of anybody who touched it is in danger.

Cobalt-60 is the most common radioactive isotope of cobalt. Experts say it can also be used in a dirty bomb, in which conventional explosives disperse radiation from a radioactive source.

The Nuclear Security Commission said that at the time of the theft, the cobalt-60 teletherapy source was "properly shielded".