I have often blogged about radioactive waste but it is usually about spent nuclear fuel, uranium mining and refining or weapons. Radioactive isotopes are also used for a lot of medical and industrial purposes and there is a lot of waste generated when the equipment and materials are retired.
In late 2013, a truck that was carrying radioactive cobalt-60 was stolen on the way from a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico to a radioactive waste disposal site. The truck was not properly equipped for such a task because it did not have a GPS tracing unit. It was thought at the time that the thieves did not know what was on the truck they stole. Since any radioactive material can be used to make a "dirty" bomb authorities put out an alert. In a dirty bomb, conventional explosives are used to disperse radioactive materials. The truck and cobalt-60 were recovered within days of the theft. The cobalt-60 container was found at a distance from the truck and it had been opened. The thieves may have been injured by the radiation from the cobalt-60 but they were never identified. Now it has happened again.
Early Saturday morning, a red 2006 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck with an industrial pipeline scanner in the back was stolen in San Juan del Rio, north of Mexico City in the state of Queretaro. The device uses a radioactive isotope of iridium to generate gamma radiation. The theft was reported by the National Commission of Nuclear Security and Safety of the Mexican federal government. It is not known whether the iridium-192 in the scanner was the target of the theft or the thieves were just after the truck. There is concern that the iridium-192 could be used to make a dirty bomb.
The Mexican government issued a statement saying that the iridium-192 can be harmful if not handled properly. It is safe as long as it is in its container but if the container is opened, the iridium-192 can cause serious damage to skin in minutes to hours. Prolonged exposure could cause death.
I am solidly against nuclear power and nuclear weapons. I believe that we should get rid of both as soon as possible. On the other hand, there are many medical and industrial applications that utilize a wide variety of radioactive isotopes. In many cases, there are no alternative approaches to accomplish the same ends. So we are obviously not going to get rid of all use and transport of radioactive materials even if we close the books on nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
The only answer to what happened in Mexico is to increase the monitoring of the handling and transport of radioactive isotopes. In addition, the public must be better educated about the dangers of radioactive isotopes. Accidents and thefts are inevitable but the damage that results can be reduced. We are also developing ways of healing tissue damaged by radiation which will be useful when people are injured by the mishandling of medical and industrial radioactive isotopes.
