Goiânia accident "one of the world's worst radiological incidents"

[Sensei]

Goiânia accident "one of the world's worst radiological incidents".

Scavengers found device with radioactive source in abandoned hospital, and significantly contaminated 249 people, 4 dead. Mostly scrapyard owner family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident

"While the serial number of the device was unknown, thus hindering definitive identification"
Unbelievable. Now every such device should have GPS included..

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sensei

[Greg H.]

Or we could, you know, make the people who hold those sources actually responsible for them. The fact is, the source was abandoned, on site, by the people running a private clinic, and then later taken by scavengers. Adding a GPS isn't exactly going to help in a situation like this where someone handling the device, not knowing what it is, later breaks it and releases radiation.

 

What should happen is effective monitoring and regulations regarding disposal when a site shuts down.

[Sensei]

Or we could, you know, make the people who hold those sources actually responsible for them. The fact is, the source was abandoned, on site, by the people running a private clinic,

 

Have you read Events section?

Owners of clinic wanted to take device, but court and police disallowed them to do so!

"Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the objects that were left behind.[6] Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb".[6]"

 

"Meanwhile, the owners of IGR wrote several letters to the National Nuclear Energy Commission, warning them about the danger of keeping a teletherapy unit at an abandoned site, but they could not remove the equipment by themselves once a court order prevented them from doing so."

 

Stupid, uneducated, incompetent court and police are guilty in large part of why this happened.

 

"Operation decontamination (cleaning) was extremely difficult because the radiation source has been opened, and the radioactive material soluble in water. A similar case in Mexico, so that with the participation of cobalt-60 was completely different in the purification process. Cobalt-60 is used in the form of an alloy with nickel in order to improve mechanical properties. If the alloy becomes dispersed, the fragments do not dissolve in water and do not acquire a high mobility. Radioactive cobalt (like radioactive iridium) may, however, be treated as scrap and contaminate the steel produced from its use. In the US, buildings demolished because it was used in their construction steel with increased amounts of cobalt-60. In Mexico reported cases in which the steel contaminated with radioactive metal used for the production of table legs."

(google translated)

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sensei

[Greg H.]

 

Have you read Events section?

Owners of clinic wanted to take device, but court and police disallowed them to do so!

"Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the objects that were left behind.[6] Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb".[6]"

Then hold them responsible for it. Really, it sounds like the main issue is that there was either a lack of regulation on what to do with said device, or a lack of enforcement of that regulation.

 

I agree that what happened should have never been alloiwed to happen, but I still fail to see what a GPS device is going to do to prevent this from happening again, unless you set up some kind of expensive system that monitors their locations and automatically summons help if they're moved.

 

Not that this will stop people from stealing them intentionally - there are ways to block a GPS signal. It would just stop the accidental exposures as in this case.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Greg H.

[John Cuthber]

 

Not that this will stop people from stealing them intentionally - there are ways to block a GPS signal.

A sheet of aluminium foil will block a GPS signal.

Blocking the gamma rays is generally more difficult.

[Greg H.]

A sheet of aluminium foil will block a GPS signal.

Blocking the gamma rays is generally more difficult.

Well, true. Though I assume that's what the lead and steel wrapper is for - to keep it from irradiating the neighbors.

 

I suppose you could call Bruce Banner in to hold onto it for you.