Radioactive device may still be in S’gor

No let-up in police hunt for missing item

SHAH ALAM: Police believe that the 23kg Radioactive Dispersal Device (RDD) that went missing from the back of a pick-up truck earlier this month may still be within Selangor.

State police chief Comm Datuk Mazlan Mansor said so far there was no indication that the RDD has been taken out of Selangor.

“We are working around the clock to locate the missing device.

“We are also being assisted by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board in our search,” he told reporters during a Hari Raya Haji celebration at the Selangor police headquarters here yesterday.

An English daily had reported that the missing device was an industrial radiography device containing the radioactive isotope Iridium-192.

It is learnt that the device has a market value of about RM75,000.

Police fear that the RDD could be used to make a dirty bomb if it falls into the wrong hands.

Authorities are also worried that the RDD could cause massive radiation exposure if it is dismantled for scrap metal.

The device belongs to a private company that offers testing, calibration and inspection

We are also being assisted by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board in our search. Comm Datuk Mazlan Mansor

services to heavy industries, including oil, gas and energy companies.

The RDD, which was used by two of the company's technicians for a job in Seremban, was loaded onto the back of their truck before they left for their office in Shah Alam.

The duo claimed that they did not stop on their journey and feared that the device could have fallen off their truck.