Someone is going to get a big bill.....
Strange way to do it though.....walking, blocking traffic
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Missing Radioactive Capsule..
- Thread starter Pete E
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Strange way to do it though.....walking, blocking traffic
Even stranger when you consider they are only check either side of the crash barrier...What about the rest of the road?
Because the capsule has been lost for several weeks, chances are that the tyres of passing traffic will have moved it off the roadway by now.
Not sure they should be looking for a radio active capsule on a "chances are" basis??? Would have thought they would jury rigged some detectors on booms or similar and fitted them to vehicles so three or so vehicles could scan the whole width of the carriage way?
However they do it, I don't hold out much luck of them finding it....
They can probably detect it more than 5 m off to the side.
That is what I meant - how far can people walk per day - how long is the road.....
To me it looks more like
'look, we are doing something"
Yes, I suspect your right....I wonder how far a smallish detector could pick up the radiation? I am thinking scanning with drones might be the way to go? You would need a fair few though if you wanted to keep two or three in the air constantly....if you could cover 10km a day, that would equate to 6 months give or take to scan the whole road.....I guess it depends how serious they are..
Has any of the road been subject to heavy rain since the capsule was lost?
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The amount of radiation exposure is inversely proportional to the square of the distance [2,4]. This means that double the distance from the radiation source can reduce the radiation exposure not to 1/2 but to 1/4. So depends on the isotope strength, given its size I'd say 2~3m you'd be battling to detect it.
They need a boom with several geiger sensors spread along it tied back to geigers with data out into a laptop interface - with alarms set. Having said that, there's natural occurring radiation too, but after some natural signals you'd probably establish a baseline to work up from. We're the experts at that aren't we, we investigate all signals
They need a boom with several geiger sensors spread along it tied back to geigers with data out into a laptop interface - with alarms set. Having said that, there's natural occurring radiation too, but after some natural signals you'd probably establish a baseline to work up from. We're the experts at that aren't we, we investigate all signals
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Probably a little further but not much (the whole purpose is to detect variation in it over at least the width of a conveyor belt, so as to speed up or slow down the belt depending on the amount of material on the belt). Doubtful that something as crude as a Geiger type sensor would be used - more likely a specialized gamma detectors with windows to detect the Cs 131 wavelength (so background radiation would be less of an issue). Even the Cs131 pellets inserted to treat prostate cancer can be detected a metre away from the person (but flesh has little effect on attenuating gamma rays).The amount of radiation exposure is inversely proportional to the square of the distance [2,4]. This means that double the distance from the radiation source can reduce the radiation exposure not to 1/2 but to 1/4. So depends on the isotope strength, given its size I'd say 2~3m you'd be battling to detect it.
They need a boom with several geiger sensors spread along it tied back to geigers with data out into a laptop interface - with alarms set. Having said that, there's natural occurring radiation too, but after some natural signals you'd probably establish a baseline to work up from. We're the experts at that aren't we, we investigate all signals
For the same reason it is unlikely to be of any consequence to people even walking past, much less driving - it is really only if someone picks it up and puts it in their pocket, or next to their bed or on the mantlepiece that a significant risk to health or life exists.
And of course half the Cs131 will have decayed in about 33 years already, so it will probably lie beside a road and simply decay to nothing over the next century.
Not very likely that a mining company would do that. And not all greens are anti nuclear energy (because of its lack of CO2 emissions). Sounds just like everyday incompetence.
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the theorists have arrived, goma.. dhuh
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
Perhaps it was lost prior to the package being sent?
The way I read it, the capsule should have been enclosed in a protective housing that is able to withstand considerable abuse. The outer box that could have been damaged during freight would not have ruptured the housing inside.
The way I read it, the capsule should have been enclosed in a protective housing that is able to withstand considerable abuse. The outer box that could have been damaged during freight would not have ruptured the housing inside.
Some of you may recall decades ago a radio active device was being transported in a designed steel box and the corrugations on a WA outback road led to the box falling through the wooden tray of the truck. Can't recall if that was ever found? Around the same time a miner in South Africa put a capsule in his pocket which resulted in his leg being amputated.
In this instance it seems strange and unsafe that they removed this highly dangerous small device from its protective housing and put it in a box with a larger hole in the bottom?
In this instance it seems strange and unsafe that they removed this highly dangerous small device from its protective housing and put it in a box with a larger hole in the bottom?
My thoughts exactly Moneybox and the time taken from point A to Point B doesn’t make sense, not that i have driven it but I have a good idea how far I could drive in the time they took. Mackka
I wondered that - it would be just a bit embarrassing to find it was still stored safely at the mine, having been removed for transport.
It was a full gauge with the capsule inside it that was being transported - they had photos of the heavy lead shielding of the guage. They said screws came loose in transport so the capsule fell out of the housing into the wooden box transporting it, then out through an empty bolt hole.
