Radioactive capsule lost in Outback

AUSTRALIAN authorities yesterday sent out more personnel and specialised detection equipment to search for a tiny radioactive capsule missing in the Outback, including a team from the country’s nuclear safety agency.

The capsule is believed to have fallen from a road train – a truck with multiple trailers – that made a 1 400km journey in Western Australia and its loss has triggered a radiation alert for large parts of the vast state.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said on Monday that it would take five days to retrace the road train’s route. Yesterday, it said that 660km had been searched so far.

The hunt involves a slew of government agencies including the Department of Defence, the police and now the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and the Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation.

The capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed that had been entrusted by Rio Tinto to specialist contractor SGS Australia for packaging and unpackaging. Transport was then subcontracted out to logistics firm Centurion.

Authorities suspect vibrations from the road train caused the screws and a bolt from the gauge to come loose, and then the capsule fell out.

The gauge was picked up from the mine site on January 12 and was unpacked for inspection on January 25 when the loss of the capsule became evident.

Centurion said the capsule was dislodged from equipment contained in a crate. The transport crate and pallet were supplied by SGS, a Centurion spokesperson said.

SGS did not immediately comment. Rio has apologised for the loss.

The road train travelled from Rio’s Gudai-Darri mine in the state’s remote Kimberley to a storage facility in Perth – a distance longer than the length of Britain. Search crews are travelling north and south along the state’s Great Northern Highway and other sections of the road train’s journey with specialised radiation detection equipment.

“Today’s delivery will further boost our search efforts,” said Darryl Ray, incident controller for the fire and emergency services department. “The equipment can detect radiation emitted by the missing capsule.”

The silver capsule, 6mm in diameter and 8mm long, contains Caesium-137 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour. People have been told to stay at least 5m away if they see it as exposure could cause radiation burns or sickness.