Just drive slowly along with a Geiger counter until you get a beep. And there it is!
WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said it was found 74km south of Newman on the Great Northern Highway this morning.
The Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner, Darren Klemm, said the capsule was found two metres from the side of the road.
He said a search vehicle was driving past at 70 kilometres per hour on the Great Northern Highway when a detection device revealed radiation.
Meanwhile, local people begin to report strange things being sighted, and pets suddenly disappearing at night...crikey!
So, now they have a glow-in-the-dark section of The Outback?
ReplyDeleteTourist attraction
Don't get too close, though!
Yeah, probably not a lot of folks will be tempted, what with the building-sized spider and all...
DeleteThem!!!!!
ReplyDeleteNo! Tarantula! Acromegaly!
DeleteThem!!! was giant ants, including flying queens and drones.
Delete"Fell off the truck."
ReplyDeleteRiiiight....
So on the perfectly flat, smoothly paved highway the radioactive source was jostled, broke the seals, forced open the heavily-secured container and jumped to freedom, and rolled off the highway the same approximate distance as a human throw, huh? Got it.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope you can throw something farther than 2 meters (just over 6'). Or we'll just call you "linguini arms".
Delete6mm by 8 mm so about a 1/4" by 5/16".
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I don't think 70 kph qualifies as "driving slowly along with a Geiger counter."
ReplyDeleteJust one man's opinion....
43.75 MPH.
DeleteA friend told me about radioactive incident he went thru selling scrap to junk yard. The system went off when he pulled up meaning his scrap was hot. Evidently some oil field drilling pipe becomes radioactive from naturally occurring deep rocks. But he didn't have that. The cause was a very old compass that was radium illuminated he carried in his truck. That's how sensitive the Geiger counters can be.
ReplyDeleteHe probably didn't have drill pipe, but old production tubing. Over the years, produced oil and gas can also carry up naturally-occurring radioactive trace element materials (NORM). Most production tubing eventually has scale built up on its inside diameter, since most wells produce water sooner or later. In fact in South Texas there are a few uranium mining operations that are a grid of shallow wells that circulate water between them, to flush out and pick up the uranium.
DeleteAnyway, this radioactivity is a known problem with used tubing, and savvy buyers will check first, even if it's junk. A lot of folks like to make steel fences out of junked tubing and sucker rods and the NORM radiation can be a problem.
So they found it…l want to know how “it’s lost “ and who realized it?
ReplyDeleteThese small sources are fairly common. Losing them not so much.
ReplyDeleteEarly structural iron, the sort from the era when cast iron was being supplemented with iron beams, can be radioactive. Seems early iron making at times included blending in radioactive ore. They simple didn't know much about radiation.
The small source lost and now found, was more a health hazard. Suspect the full explanation could be rather unimpressive, to say the least.