Thread: UN, Mexico: Truck with radioactive load stolen

UN, Mexico: Truck with radioactive load stolen

By RODRIGO SOBERANES, Associated Press | December 4, 2013 | Updated: December 4, 2013 11:07am

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Photo By Sean Gallup/Getty Images
In this file photo a symbol for radioactivity is visible on a radioactively-contaminated container in Germany. A truck carrying an extremely dangerous radioactive substance has been stolen in central Mexico, the U.N. nuclear agency said Wednesday.

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) — A cargo truck hauling used medical equipment with extremely dangerous radioactive material was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities have put out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican and U.N. nuclear officials said Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said the truck was carrying cobalt-60.

The equipment for radiation therapy belonged to Mexico's public health agency and was no longer in use, saidRicardo Maza, a civil protection official in Veracruz state, where one of the alerts was issued. The capsule of the radioactive material was sealed in lead, he added.

Maza said the thieves most likely wanted the truck and didn't know what it was carrying.

The equipment was being transferred to a storage center for radioactive waste when the truck was stolen.

The material was properly shielded and posed no risk as long as its container is not fractured or otherwise altered, the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards of Mexico's Secretary of Energy said in a statement. But the commission urged whoever has it in their possession not to open or damage it because it could pose a severe health risk, and to return the material immediately.

The white Volkswagen cargo truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" was headed from Tijuana to a nuclear storage facility in central Mexico and was taken from a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.

Driver Valentin Escamilla Ortiz told authorities he left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was resting in the truck overnight when two men armed with a gun approached the truck about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.

The IAEA described the load as "extremely dangerous" if damaged or removed from its protective shielding.

http://www.chron.com/business/energy...en-5033617.php

Stolen radioactive container in Mexico found empty

AP6:25 p.m. EST December 4, 2013

Thieves took cargo truck that was hauling obsolete medical equipment containing cobalt-60 used in cancer treatment.


(Photo: National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards/AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The truckload of cobalt-60 was heading to a waste facility
• Direct exposure to cobalt-60 may be 'almost immediately fatal'
• Official: Thieves may have thrown radioactive material away

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities have recovered a stolen cargo truck that was hauling radioactive medical waste, but a piece of equipment containing dangerous nuclear material was missing.

The truck, which was stolen Monday from a gas station in central Mexico, was carrying a metal container of cobalt-60 headed to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

He said radioactivity has been detected about a half mile from where the stolen truck and empty container were found in the state of Mexico. Authorities have cordoned off the area.

Though the container is heavily sealed in lead, designed to be difficult to break and to survive accidents intact, he said it contains an amount of radioactive material that could do serious damage if opened.

Direct exposure would result in death within a few minutes, he added.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told the Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that it can be almost immediately fatal, depending on proximity. "The intensity is very big if it is broken."

Eibenschutz said there is nothing so far to indicate that the theft of the material was intentional or in any way intended for an act of terrorism.

The material could not be used to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material, he said.

Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight, but that it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert. Local, state and federal authorities, including the military, are searching for the truck.

The material was used for obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in the northern border city of Tijuana, Eibenshutz said. The thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

The thieves likely didn't know what the truck was carrying, he said, and may have discarded the metal container, which he said is about a meter square.

"If someone finds a big chunk of metal with radiation symbols all over it, they should notify us immediately and don't open it," Eibenschutz said.

This image released by the National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards of Mexico's Energy Secretary (CNSNS) on Wednesday shows a large box that is part of the cargo of a stolen truck hauling medical equipment with extremely dangerous radioactive material, in Tepojaco, Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City.(Photo: CNSNS/AP)

The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when it stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, driver Valentin Escamilla Ortiz told authorities.

He said he was sleeping in the truck when two men armed with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.
The truck has a GPS locator but it wasn't active at the time of the theft, Eibenschutz said.

Authorities sent out an alert to six central states and the capital, and Mexican customs officials are on alert to prevent the truck from crossing the border, Eibenschutz said. The material could not be used to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material.

All of the U.S. ports of entry have radiation detectors in place, and trucks crossing the border are routinely screened for radiation.

There are an average of a half-dozen reported thefts of radioactive material in Mexico each year, Eibenschutz said, and none have proven to be intentional, meaning the thieves were not after the material. He said in all cases so far, they were after the containers or vehicles.

Such unintentional thefts are not uncommon, said an official familiar with cases reported by International Atomic Energy Agency member states, who was not authorized to comment on the case. In some cases, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious harm to people who unknowingly come into contact with it.

In a famous case in the 1970s of stolen radioactive material in Mexico, one thief died and the other was injured when they opened the container, he said. The container was junked and sold to a foundry, where it contaminated some of the steel reinforcement bar that was made there. Eibenschutz said all foundries in Mexico now have equipment to detect radioactive material.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...-load/3872111/

BREAKING NEWS

Radioactive material stolen in Mexico recovered

6 hospitalized in Mexico for possible radiation poisoning

CNN - 4 minutes ago

4/16/2015

http://www.alipac.us/f12/dangerous-r...mexico-318904/