Thieves in Mexico Steal Radioactive Materials

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**KalashnikovMarine**

I was originally going to post the store about how a shipment of Cobalt 60, a highly radioactive element used in hospitals was stole but there was an update this morning...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/05/21768849-thieves-of-mexico-truck-carrying-radioactive-material-in-very-great-risk-of-dying?lite

y Olga R. Rodriguez, The Associated press

Mexican troops and federal police kept a nighttime watch on a rural field where thieves abandoned a stolen shipment of highly radioactive cobalt-60, while officials began planning the delicate task of recovering the dangerous material.

Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, said late Wednesday that it could take at least two days to safely get the material into a secure container and transport it to a waste site.

"It's a very delicate operation," Eibenschutz said. "What's important is that the material has been located and the place is being watched to guarantee no one gets close."

The missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico.

Authorities in Mexico say the search is over for radioactive material, Colbalt-60, that was stolen on its way to a disposal plant. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

The highly radioactive material had been removed from its container, officials said, and one predicted that anyone involved in opening the box could be in grave danger of dying within days.

The cobalt-60 was left in a rural area about a half a mile from Hueypoxtla, a farm town of about 4,000 people, but it posed no threat to the residents and there was no evacuation, Eibenschutz said.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz said.

Townspeople complained they hadn't been given any information about what had been found in the nearby field.

"We don't know anything," resident Jose Antonio Rosales told Milenio Television. "We don't know if it's good, if it's bad. The authorities haven't told us anything."

Federal police and military units on the scene threw up an armed cordon about 500 yards around the site.

Mardonio Jimenez, a physicist for the nuclear commission, said it was the first time cobalt-60 had been stolen and extracted from its container in Mexico. The only threat was to whoever opened the box and later discarded the pellets of high-intensity radioactive material inside, he said.

"The person or people who took this out are in very great risk of dying," Jimenez said, adding that the normal survival rate would be between one and three days.

He said there was no word so far of anyone reporting to area hospitals with radiation exposure. He said those who exposed themselves to the pellets could not contaminate others.

The cargo truck hauling the cobalt-60 was stolen from a gas station early Monday in the neighboring state of Hidalgo, about 24 miles from where the material was recovered, Jimenez said. Authorities had put out an alert in six central states and the capital looking for it.

The material had been removed from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.

Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the thieves were after the cobalt or in any way intended for an act of terrorism. The thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane, he said.

On average, a half dozen thefts of radioactive materials are reported in Mexico each year and none has proven to be aimed at the cargo itself, he said.

According to authorities, a 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 told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached him. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

Eibenschutz said the transport company did not follow proper procedures and should have had GPS and security with the truck.

"The driver also lacked common sense because he decided to park along a highway so he could sleep," he said.

The company that owns the truck couldn't immediately be located for comment. One Mexico City company called "Transportes Ortiz" said the truck was not theirs and they had nothing to do with the incident.

So that problem seems to have sorted itself out in a hurry. Also who the HELL steals radioactive materials... then opens the box it's in?

**PredaKhaine**

People who thought they'd robbed a cake van?

**KalashnikovMarine**

With lead lined cake boxes yes?

**d-usa**

I think that the act of opening the thing should reassure us that this wasn't an orchestrated terrorist event, unless the terrorists wanted a quick way to get rid of some witnesses!

If they knew it was a transport from a medical facility they might have thought that they were stealing some drugs...

**KalashnikovMarine**

Well considering they left the Colbalt 60 and it's been recovered no need to worry about terrorists. The articles I've read seem to suggest they might have been after the cargo vehicle.

**d-usa**

I think the story that I had read earlier said that they weren't sure if any of it was missing yet, although they didn't think so.

Aren't there some sort of warning signs on these things to keep idiots from opening them?

**PredaKhaine**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
With lead lined cake boxes yes?

Special cake.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

d-usa wrote:
I think the story that I had read earlier said that they weren't sure if any of it was missing yet, although they didn't think so.

Aren't there some sort of warning signs on these things to keep idiots from opening them?

Warning signs for idiots
Idiots wouldn't read the signs

**d-usa**

PredaKhaine wrote:
KalashnikovMarine wrote:
With lead lined cake boxes yes?

Special cake.

Yellow cake?

**whembly**

d-usa wrote:
I think that the act of opening the thing should reassure us that this wasn't an orchestrated terrorist event, unless the terrorists wanted a quick way to get rid of some witnesses!

If they knew it was a transport from a medical facility they might have thought that they were stealing some drugs...

Yeah... that's my read too.

Also... I doubt there's enough of the cobalt to make a huge dirty bomb.

Now, if it was unrefined Polonium? Holy gak that thing is scary. o.O

**Howard A Treesong**

Not enough to make a bomb, but you could poison a water supply. Glad it's been recovered and not dumped into the environment somewhere.

**hotsauceman1**

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
With lead lined cake boxes yes?

There is a reason it is called yellow cake uranium

**juraigamer**

It's not like mexico can make their water worse, right?

**Co'tor Shas**

I heard from an expert on the radio that the thieves themselves, seeing that the cobalt was found a distance from the container, that they thieves were exposed to the radiation and are probably sick or dead at this very moment from radiation poison.

**d-usa**

juraigamer wrote:
It's not like mexico can make their water worse, right?

Radiation can be used to disinfect things, so maybe this will help?

**mega_bassist**

My favorite part of the article:

On average, a half dozen thefts of radioactive materials are reported in Mexico each year and none has proven to be aimed at the cargo itself, he said.

This seems like...something that shouldn't happen this often! What the heck are they doing down there??

**Frazzled**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
I heard from an expert on the radio that the thieves themselves, seeing that the cobalt was found a distance from the container, that they thieves were exposed to the radiation and are probably sick or dead at this very moment from radiation poison.

SOunds like everything works out in the end...

**KalashnikovMarine**

That is also in the article that the thieves are very likely dead or dying.

**Avatar 720**

There'll be Ghouls roaming Mexico in no time.

**Velour_Fog**

Avatar 720 wrote:
There'll be Ghouls roaming Mexico in no time.

Problem, smoothskin?

**Avatar 720**

Velour_Fog wrote:
Avatar 720 wrote:
There'll be Ghouls roaming Mexico in no time.

Problem, smoothskin?

Yeah, your face.

I was wondering if a female ghoul in a relationship is called a 'ghoulfriend', but then I remembered that ghouls don't have friends.

You guys are so filthy, super mutants tell their kids that they'll look like ghouls if they don't take their annual bath.

The second worst thing I've ever smelled is Deathclaw poop. The worst thing was Deathclaw poop after it'd eaten a ghoul.

**Gentleman_Jellyfish**

Avatar 720 wrote:
Velour_Fog wrote:
Avatar 720 wrote:
There'll be Ghouls roaming Mexico in no time.

Problem, smoothskin?

Yeah, your face.

I was wondering if a female ghoul in a relationship is called a 'ghoulfriend', but then I remembered that ghouls don't have friends.

You guys are so filthy, super mutants tell their kids that they'll look like ghouls if they don't take their annual bath.

The second worst thing I've ever smelled is Deathclaw poop. The worst thing was Deathclaw poop after it'd eaten a ghoul.

das raycist

**Dark Apostle 666**

No, that was inspired

**Dreadclaw69**

d-usa wrote:
PredaKhaine wrote:
KalashnikovMarine wrote:
With lead lined cake boxes yes?
Special cake.
Yellow cake?

That was my first thought too

KalashnikovMarine wrote:
That is also in the article that the thieves are very likely dead or dying.

Natural selection in action

**KalashnikovMarine**

Or just the universe having a sense of direct justice for once.