Radioactive leak fears spark panic
The discovery of a metal box with a hazardous chemical label in a deserted office building in the Chatuchak district of Bangkok yesterday afternoon triggered fears over a possible radioactive leak.
The scare later subsided when authorities called in to handle the object, initially thought to contain Cobalt 60, confirmed the material inside the suspicious box was expired Iridium 192, and posed no danger to the public.
Pimchaya Surasarapan, 55, a caretaker in the building located on Soi Phahon Yothin 24, told police she found the box, about 30 by 20 by 15cm, on the second floor of the building when she went upstairs to collect her belongings before moving out of the building.
She had been living on the first floor of the building since before the Thai owner of the building died about seven years ago.
Ever since the owner’s death, a Korean friend of his had rented the building but rarely visited, she said, adding the Korean tenant simply used the building as a business mailing address with officials in Rayong province.
Spotting the hazardous chemical label on the box, she decided to alert the police, she said.
Following her report about the suspicious container, police and a team from the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) rushed to the scene to inspect the box.
Tenants in a 10-storey apartment building on the opposite side of the deserted office building were then told to close all windows and doors to their apartments and to leave the building for their own safety.
The school located next to the abandoned office building would have been affected by yesterday’s operation as well if it had not been for a school break. No students were there at the time of the operation.
Pol Maj Gen Charoen Sisasalak, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s (MPB) Division 2, said the box was tightly sealed and a label on one side of it contained the word “Caesium 137”.
They found no signs of any leakage of substances in the box, he said.
As police were confident that the box posed no danger as originally feared, they subsequently called off a plan to evacuate people who live nearby, Pol Maj Gen Charoen said.
Science and Technology Minister, Pichet Durongkaveroj, later revealed that what was actually in the box were bars of Iridium 192 which had expired in 1995 and were no longer hazardous.
The material is normally used in gamma ray photography conducted to detect holes or ruptures in pipes used in natural gas factories, Mr Pichet said.
Police are now working, together with the OAP, on considering the possible legal action that can be taken against the owner of the metal box, said acting MPB chief Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathavorn.
Ms Pimchaya, however, said the unnamed Korean national who rented the building had returned to Korea a long time ago.
Thewarit Khreau-manee, assistant director of the Chatuchak district office, said the district office had learned that it is illegal to own the particular type of materials found in the discovered box.
The office will petition police to take legal action against the party who owned it before it was found.