Sydney (Australia), 28. The emergency services of Western Australia, the Oceanian country’s largest state, are conducting an intensive search this Saturday to locate a poisonous capsule that was lost during its transfer to the regional capital Perth, leading to the issuing a “substance risk” alert. radioactive”.
The tiny capsule, 6mm in diameter and 8mm high, contains a “small quantity” of the radioactive substance caesium-137, which is used in mining and “during transport between a mine” north of the town of Newman and the North East Perth between January 10 and 16, Western Australia’s Department of Health said in a statement released on Friday.
As a result, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services issued an alert to residents of various areas of Australia’s largest state, warning of the risks of exposure to this toxic substance, which include “radiation burns or radiation sickness” like cancer.
“The capsule is small (6 mm in diameter and 8 mm high), round and silver. The risk to the general public is relatively low, but it’s important to be aware of the risks and what to do if you see the capsule,” says the alarm.
The agency warned that when viewing suspicious material, people should keep at least five meters away, don’t touch it, don’t keep it in bags or backpacks and don’t take it to their cars, but should report it to authorities “immediately”. . .
The exact location where the device went missing is not known to the teams working to find the radioactive capsule at this time, as the city of Newman is about 1,400 kilometers north-east of Perth, the final destination of the truck that is transporting it have.
The toxic material was packed on January 10 and the vehicle arrived in Perth six days later, but it wasn’t until January 25 that cargo inspectors discovered that one of the packages had been torn and one of those tiny capsules had been lost along the way, complete the Entity. EFE
from-nbo/pi