Stolen radioactive liquid truck found EMPTY in Mexico with contents dumped a kilometer away - but thieves who opened container could be sick and die within days after being exposed to DEADLY levels of radiation • The stolen truck has been found; some of the material has been found elsewhere

• Radiation has been detected in the area, an official says • Thieves lives could be in danger as they were exposed to deadly levels of radiation • The cobalt had been used for cancer treatments in Tijuana • Experts say cobalt-60 can also be used to make a dirty bomb • The truck was headed to a waste facility • Exposure to cancer-therapy substance may be 'almost immediately fatal' • Thieves probably wanted truck and were unaware of nuclear cargo By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:01:24 GMT, 5 December 2013| UPDATED:05:08 GMT, 5 December 2013 A truck that contained highly radioactive material that could be used by terrorists to create a 'dirty bomb' has been found but the lives of the thieves who stole it could be in danger. The highly radioactive material was found in an empty parking lot about a kilometer from Hueypoxtla, a small farming town of about 4,000 people - close to where it was originally stolen. Officials say the radioactive source had been removed from its container but say whoever had opened could die 'because the source's intensity is very high'. 'They will eventually have to go to a hospital, and we'll be waiting for them,' NNSC official Mardonio Jimenez said. Authorities located 40 grams of Cobalt-60 about a half-mile away from the truck's container, according to Juan Eibenschutz, director of the Mexican Nuclear Agency. '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.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518484/Stolen-radioactive-liquid-container-truck-EMPTY-contents-dumped-kilometer-away.html#ixzz2mbObwGdH

Submitted on 12/05/2013

Submitted by: Colin Polley
Reference: Daily Mail - Thursday, Dec 05 2013

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Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Other
Thanks, Colin, but there's nothing here that's we can really use. There's only speculation that the thieves might have received harmful doses of radiation. And we'd also have to speculate as to whether the thieves were aware of the nature of the cargo as well as if they may have inadvertently harmed innocent bystanders by leaving the radioactive material the way that they did. Until we know for certain that the thieves were aware of the hazardous cargo, were in fact harmed by it, and no innocent victims were also harmed, then we just can't accept this.

Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Other
What Bruce said.

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