Pegasus Research Consortium

Truck carrying 'extremely dangerous' radioactive material found after it was stolen in Mexico - World News (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/04/21750977-truck-carrying-extremely-dangerous-radioactive-material-found-after-it-was-stolen-in-mexico)

By Pete Williams and Alexander Smith, NBC News

A truck carrying "extremely dangerous" radioactive material was found Wednesday close to the place where it was stolen in Mexico, authorities said.

The cargo was found about half a mile from the container.

The vehicle was transporting radiotherapy equipment containing the radioactive isotope cobalt-60 from a hospital to a waste storage center, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.


"At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said in a statement.

"However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged."

The thieves likely opened the container not knowing what it was carrying and burned themselves, Juan Eibenschutz, general director of Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Security and Safeguards, told NBC News.

The thieves are likely either dead or dying.

following the incident, Eibenschutz added. 


Officials have closed off the area where the radioactive material was found.

They are conducting tests to determine when it is safe to approach it.
 
The vehicle is a 2.5-ton Volkswagen truck with an integrated crane. It was stolen on Monday at a gas station in Tepojaco, near Mexico City.

Mexico's federal, state, and local authorities were involved in a widespread and coordinated hunt for the vehicle across several states, the CNSNS said.

U.S. officials say it's not at all clear why it had been stolen, adding that there was no indication it had been taken for any criminal or terrorist purpose.
 
"It could be," one federal official said, "that whoever stole the truck had no idea what was inside and was more interested in getting a truck."
 
One law enforcement official says the radioactive material the truck was carrying is a thumb-sized amount of cobalt-60, used in medical treatments.

"It would be extremely dangerous to anyone who tried to grind it up for use in a dirty bomb," the official said.

The main concern of authorities was that the material in the stolen truck is dangerous to handle. In addition, it could also be used to make a radioactive dirty bomb, as could all similar materials used in medicine and industry.

At the same time, U.S. officials say cobalt-60 is among the materials that would be hardest to disperse over a wide area, assuming such a device could be made.






According to safety guidelines on the IAEA website, a "malevolent use of radioactive sources...could also cause significant social, psychological and economic impacts."

There also are many documented cases of people unwittingly stealing or acquiring radioactive material and then becoming ill or dying.

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor told NBC News:

"Such thefts are not uncommon,

and the thieves do not necessarily know what they have in their possession in addition to the vehicle that may have been the original target.

"In some cases, for example, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious health consequences for people who unknowingly come into contact with it."



The PJ Tatler » Great News: Mexico's Stolen Nuclear Material is Still Missing (http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/12/04/great-news-mexicos-stolen-nuclear-material-is-still-missing/)

Well, it's not like there's any danger of this stuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Verde_nuclear_power_plant) crossing the porous border into the US...
Tepojaco (Mexico) (AFP) – Mexican authorities scrambled Wednesday to find a truck containing "extremely dangerous" radioactive material used in medical treatment that was stolen by two gunmen two days ago, officials said.

The white Volkswagen Worker truck was transporting a teletherapy device containing cobalt-60 when it was stolen Monday in the central Hidalgo state town of Tepojaco, near Mexico City, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mexico's National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) told AFP the medical equipment contained 60 grams of cobalt-60, a quantity which experts say could be enough to build a "dirty bomb" if it fell in the wrong hands.



6:56 PM - 4 Dec 2013

Mexico official: Stolen cobalt-60 found (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/mexican-truck-radioactive-load-stolen)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's nuclear safety director says that missing radioactive cobalt-60 has been found near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico state.
Juan Eibenschutz says the area is a kilometer from the nearest town and so far poses no threat or need for evacuation.



 
This image released Wednesday Dec. 4, 2013 by the National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards of Mexico's Energy Secretary (CNSNS) shows a piece of machinery that is part of the cargo of a stolen truck hauling medical equipment with extremely dangerous radioactive material, in Tepojaco, Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City.

The cargo truck was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities have put out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican and U.N. nuclear officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/CNSNS)


Stolen cobalt-60 found abandoned (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/mexican-truck-radioactive-load-stolen)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico state, the country's nuclear safety director said.

The highly radioactive material was found in an empty lot about a kilometer (a half a mile) from Hueypoxtla, an agricultural town of about 4,000 people, but it poses no threat or a need for an evacuation, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz said.
The cargo truck hauling the extremely dangerous cobalt-60 that had been used in medical equipment was stolen from a gas station early Tuesday, and authorities had put out an alert in six central states and the capital looking for it. Police and the military joined in the hunt.

The truck was taking the cobalt to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which is adjacent to Mexico City.





Eibenschutz said direct exposure to cobalt-60 could result in death within a few minutes. He said hospitals near the area were asked to report if they treat anyone exposed to radioactivity.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told The Associated Press.

But, he added, the material poses no threat to human life if kept at least 500 yards (457.2 meters) away.

For you folks in Tampa, LeDave, that's five (5) football fields laid end-to-end... which means theft-by-drone (if the radiation wouldn't fry the electronics ala Nukushima) might be the only 'safe' way.

Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight of cobalt, but said it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert.

The material was used in obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in the northern border city of Tijuana, Eibenshutz said.

Before the container was found, he said the thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the theft of the cobalt was intentional or in any way intended for an act of terrorism.

The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when the driver stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.

The driver, Valentin Escamilla Ortiz, told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.

On average, a half dozen thefts of radioactive materials are reported in Mexico each year and none have proven to be aimed at the cargo, Eibenschutz said. He said that in all the cases the thieves were after shipping containers or the vehicles.

One might think that nuclear radioactive waste shipping containers are job-specific, so that begs the question as to WHY steal a shipping container?

Unintentional thefts of radioactive materials are not uncommon, said an official familiar with cases reported by International Atomic Energy Agency member states, who was not authorized to comment on the case. In some cases, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious harm to people who unknowingly come into contact with it.

In a Mexican case in the 1970s, one thief died and the other was injured when they opened a container holding radioactive material, he said.

The container was junked and sold to a foundry, where it contaminated some steel reinforcement bars made there. Eibenschutz said all foundries in Mexico now have equipment to detect radioactive material.

Stolen cobalt-60 found abandoned | Boston Herald (http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/americas/2013/12/stolen_cobalt_60_found_abandoned)

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

MEXICO CITY — A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico state, the country's nuclear safety director said.

The highly radioactive material was found in an empty lot about a kilometer (a half a mile) from Hueypoxtla, an agricultural town of about 4,000 people, but it poses no threat or a need for an evacuation, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz said.
The cargo truck hauling the extremely dangerous cobalt-60 that had been used in medical equipment was stolen from a gas station early Tuesday, and authorities had put out an alert in six central states and the capital looking for it. Police and the military joined in the hunt.

The truck was taking the cobalt to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which is adjacent to Mexico City.

Eibenschutz said direct exposure to cobalt-60 could result in death within a few minutes. He said hospitals near the area were asked to report if they treat anyone exposed to radioactivity.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told The Associated Press.

But, he added, the material poses no threat to human life if kept at least 500 yards (500 meters) away.
Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight of cobalt, but said it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert.

The material was used in obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in the northern border city of Tijuana, Eibenshutz said.

Before the container was found, he said the thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the theft of the cobalt was intentional or in any way intended for an act of terrorism.

The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when the driver stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.

The driver, Valentin Escamilla Ortiz, told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.
On average, a half dozen thefts of radioactive materials are reported in Mexico each year and none have proven to be aimed at the cargo, Eibenschutz said. He said that in all the cases the thieves were after shipping containers or the vehicles.

Unintentional thefts of radioactive materials are not uncommon, said an official familiar with cases reported by International Atomic Energy Agency member states, who was not authorized to comment on the case. In some cases, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious harm to people who unknowingly come into contact with it.

In a Mexican case in the 1970s, one thief died and the other was injured when they opened a container holding radioactive material, he said.

The container was junked and sold to a foundry, where it contaminated some steel reinforcement bars made there. Eibenschutz said all foundries in Mexico now have equipment to detect radioactive material.



Tepojaco (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexican authorities found Wednesday a stolen medical device containing dangerous radioactive material outside the truck that was carrying it north of Mexico City, threatening the life of those who touched it, officials said.

Military and police forces cordoned off the area to prevent contamination after finding the teletherapy machine in a rural area north of Mexico City two days after the truck was stolen.

The device containing cobalt-60 was taken out of its steel-reinforced wood container and left hundreds of meters (yards) from the truck in Hueypoxtla, said Mardonio Jimenez, operations director at the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS).

The white Volkswagen Worker truck was transporting the device from a hospital in the northwestern city of Tijuana when it was stolen at a service station in central Hidalgo state on Monday.

The truck was supposed to deliver the material to a radioactive waste disposal facility in the central state named Mexico.

The International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the material was "extremely dangerous" if removed from its shielding. Experts also said the 60 grams of cobalt-60 inside it was enough to make a "dirty bomb."

Authorities had searched for the truck in six states and the capital, delivering radio messages for people to call an emergency number in case they saw the truck.

"We found the radioactive source removed from its container and left between 500 and 700 meters" from the truck in Mexico state, Jimenez said.

He said authorities did not know if the people who removed the device from its container were the thieves but that "what's certain" is that the radiation they experience will kill them "because the source's intensity is very high."

The driver told investigators that two gunmen approached him at a Pemex service station, tied him up and drove away with the truck, according to a text of the testimony shown by the Hidalgo state prosecutor's office.

The manager of the Pemex service station, an hour's drive north of Mexico City, told AFP the driver appeared to have parked across the street to rest overnight.

The material was on its way to the Radioactive Waste Storage Center in Maquixco, Mexico state. The facility is surrounded by a white fence topped with barbed wire, but no armed guards were visible outside, an AFP correspondent said.

An official from the center said the truck driver had been waiting for the facility to open at 8:00 am on Tuesday.

Mexico's drug cartels have diversified their illegal activities in recent years, stealing oil and minerals, but officials have not said who the cobalt-60 thieves might be.

The CNSNS, which reported the theft to the IAEA, had warned that whoever found the equipment should not open or damage it because it can cause "severe health problems."


'Sufficient' for dirty bomb
Experts have long warned about the risks posed by the large amounts of radioactive material held in hospitals, university campuses and factories, often with little or no security measures to prevent them being stolen.

In an incident involving a teletherapy device in Thailand in 2000, 425 Curies -- the measure of radioactivity -- of cobalt-60 was sufficient to make 10 people very ill, three of whom died, according to the IAEA.

The equipment stolen in Mexico contained nearly 3,000 Curies, CNSNS radiological security director Jaime Aguirre Gomez told AFP.

Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of the metallic element cobalt and the gamma rays it emits destroy tumors, but contact or just being near it can cause cancer if not properly handled and sealed.



More worryingly, though, such material could in theory be put in a so-called "dirty bomb" -- an explosive device designed to spread the radioactive material over a wide area.

The quantity stolen in Mexico is "sufficient" to make a dirty bomb, said Michelle Cann, an analyst at the Partnership for Global Security.

"But the ultimate level of damage and contamination hinges on many factors," she said.   :P



Here's a very detailed account of what happens when a radiothereapy machine is opened and the cobalt60 source is exposed:

The 1988 Radialogical Accident in Goiania, Brazil (http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub815_web.pdf)

QuoteThe thieves are likely either dead or dying.

Idiots. 

"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

There are no excuses for this piss poor security on radioactive material.

6 incidents a year in Mexico alone! That's insane.

You know what Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid."

I hope it's slow and painful.

So now every stupid thief in Mexico knows not to open these and sell them on the black market for dirty bombs.  Were they really smart by reporting how to grind this stuff for weapons?  It is like they just opened the candy store.

And why is this stuff traveling around Mexico without an escort. At least put it in a truck that won't stop. Change drivers.

When a dirty bomb really hits, the net will be a buzz with the cia did it, TPTB want to reduce our population, etc.  In reality it could be just a new stupid thief who read the newspaper and took the OPERUNITY.

Deuem

Five held in Mexican radioactive material theft (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/9/five-held-in-mexicanradioactivematerialtheft.html)

Mexican authorities have formally arrested five men suspected of stealing a truck carrying highly radioactive material in a theft that raised international alarm, an official said Monday.

Six people tested for possible radiation exposure have been released from hospital but remain under detention as suspects in the theft of a truck carrying highly radioactive cobalt-60, officials said Friday.

Of the detained men, ages 16 to 38, only the 16-year-old showed signs of radiation exposure and he was was vomiting, but otherwise in good health, a spokeswoman for Hidalgo's Health Department said on condition of anonymity because she isn't allowed to discuss the case.




A federal judge on Sunday ordered the five suspects held for 40 days on allegations of theft through organized crime and illegally transporting hazardous material, an official at the attorney general's office told Agence France Presse news agency.

The stolen vehicle, a white Volkswagen Worker truck, was transporting a "teletherapy source" containing the cobalt from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center when it was stolen in Tepojaco near Mexico City on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said. The U.N. atomic watchdog first announced that the vehicle was missing Wednesday.

The machine contained 60 grams of cobalt-60, a highly radioactive isotope that experts say could be used to make a crude "dirty bomb."



As of December 2003, the IAEA database includes 182 confirmed incidents since 1 January 1993 that involved nuclear material.


Last year alone, the IAEA recorded 17 cases of illegal possession and attempts to sell nuclear materials (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2007/11/200852514226960152.html) and 24 incidents of theft or loss. It says this is the "tip of the iceberg."

The theft prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to issue an alert for "extremely dangerous" material and U.S. authorities to keep tabs on the situation.

Authorities maintained a 500-meter (yard) cordon around the site where the cobalt-60 still remains in the state of Mexico and continued to work Friday to extract it safely, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

"It's quite an operation and it is in the process of being planned," he said. "It's highly radioactive, so you cannot just go over and pick it up. It's going to take a while to pick it up."



In an incident showing how dangerous such materials are, in Goiania, Brazil in 1987 a machine containing a substance similar to cobalt-60, caesium-137, was left lying around after a cancer unit of a hospital moved.

Thinking it might have scrap value, two people dismantled the equipment and when the radioactive material started glowing blue in the dark it was shown off around the local community as a curiosity.
Eighty-five houses were contaminated and 249 people needed medical treatment. Twenty-eight people suffered radiation burns and four died including a 6-year-old girl who handled the substance while eating.




Major international efforts have been made since the end of the Cold War in 1991 and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States to prevent nuclear material falling into the wrong hands.

A report issued in July by the Arms Control Association and the Partnership for Global Security said progress had been made reducing the threat but that "significant" work remained.

This is the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Verde_nuclear_power_plant), located a tsunami-proof 50 feet from the Gulf of Mexico in Alto Lucero, Veracruz, with an ocean view uninterrupted by any sea wall that we can see.

Laguna Verde is Mexico's only nuke plant, providing about 3% of the country's electricity since it went online 20 years ago, or so they say.   :P

(This being Mexico, you'll be pleased to know that Laguna Verde once held the world record for Most Consecutive Days of Uninterrupted Operation During a Nuclear Power Plant First Generation Cycle - 250 days.)    ;)




Yes, yes, we can hear you saying, but what about earthquakes?

Not to worry, amigos, the state of Veracruz hasn't had a 'significant' earthquake in more than two months (http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/mexico.html) - and it was just a puny 6.5! And the 40 earthquakes over M3.8 in Mexico over the last seven days are nothing to worry about.   :P



So the odds that we'll get to see how Mexican bureaucrats and public utility employees would react to a Daiichi-type disaster are... well, we'll get the Statistics Department crunching those numbers and update you later.

Sleep well.   :P






Nuclear Mexico Considers 10 Nuclear Power Plants to Reach Clean Energy Mandates (http://buildaroo.com/news/article/mexico-nuclear-power-plants-clean-energy-mandates/)

To meet the mandates of Mexico's new national energy policy, the Federal Electricity Commission -- known as CFE -- announced Wednesday that they have drawn up four plans to produce cleaner power, and one of the scenarios is the addition of 10 nuclear power plants.

At present, there is only one nuclear power station located in the state of Veracruz in Laguna Verde near the Gulf of Mexico which took 20 years to build. President Felipe Calderon is hoping that the cost of building new nuclear power plants will be financed in part by contributions from wealthier nations.

Traditionally CFE has focused on producing low cost electricity, but to meet the new requirements for reduced carbon emissions, CFE is considering aggressive scenarios to maintain the emission rates they achieved in 2008. Currently, only 27 percent of the country's power generation is carbon-free, but the plans call for an increase to 35 percent.

Georgina Kessel, Mexico's Energy Minister, explained that "this is going to be the first year that the CFE takes into account what is established in our national energy strategy to determine what the mixture will be for our generation."