What was the local impact of this pollution incident?
> "Some of the highest levels of contamination detected in the area were reportedly found in the company’s furnace, which is about 1.5 miles southwest of the BMS Foods facility where the shrimp was processed. Investigators think that radioactive dust was released into the environment after PMT inadvertently smelted scrap metal containing cesium-137. “Because it’s airborne, the contamination can be carried by wind,”..."
Half life tracking presumably would give a "birthday" for the cesium-137 source. Given they suspect scrap contamination in a recycling smelter, its at best informing to root cause. That, and the length of the tail yet to come as it passes down the ladder.
“Half life tracking” isn’t really a thing — decay is a memory-less process (by definition), so there’s no distinction in decay rate between a lot of old Cesium 137, and a bit of young Cesium 137. The way to put an age on the contamination is by looking at the ratio of Cesium 137 and Barium 137, which presumedly someone has done…
> "by looking at the ratio of Cesium 137 and Barium 137, which presumedly someone has done…"
That's impractical; the decay product Ba-137 is stable and already present in much larger amounts, compared against which the Cs-137 decay products are undetectable.
> “easiest explanation” is that a medical or industrial device containing cesium-137 was inadvertently reprocessed as scrap metal. The radioactive material could have become gaseous after entering the PMT furnace and then been released from the facility’s smokestack
Which is highly concerning in itself. A ban on any steel imports from that country should happen immediately and strict requirements on preprocess detection and post process radiation levels should be put in place.
Is the classic example of what happens when you don't do rad checking at the foundry. You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.
You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.
Well now that's the glass half empty point of view, from the glass half full vantage point, I'm no scientist but my understanding of science if you get bit by a radioactive species, those traits a nuclearly transferred upon your person as superpowers. So what I'm thinking the upside is all the peoples who eat these shrimps will also develop superpowers as the new superhero - SHRIMP-MAN:
"Looks like you've gone from the big fish... to the tiny, tiny shrimp!"
"Don't worry, my justice is always freshly boiled and ready!"
"That's a negative, I'm not a side dish! I am the main event!"
Protectionist regimes and opaque supply chains that aim to maximize profits above all else aren't motivated to provide honest answers, only a least-damaging public relations narrative.
$1200.00 reward for finding the missing cesium, and a $3500 fine if they can prove the people who lost it, lost it, go Thialand government, it's not clear what the
cesium was bieng used for in.a coal plant, perhaps as an x ray source, for welds, and metal integrity, but in any case there is a strict chain of comand for who has resonsibility for ANY "source"(xray), bad mojo
and they are pretending that a source can be opened and handled and clearly lost and spread around, without people suffering extream consiquences imediatly
buddys who have done industrial xray, another who was an "xray welder", weld, xray guys set up, everybody vacates 150', weld, exray guys set up, repeat 733 times and you have a bridge, or whatever
this shit is very very dangerous, and impossible to survive at close range without getting hurt, fast
something is very very wrong in Thailand, and there is most deffinitly a clumsy cover up
> Vicente Sotelo Alardín, then an employee of the medical center, dismantled the unit on December 6, 1983, to sell it as scrap metal at the Fénix junkyard at the request of the hospital's maintenance manager. Sotelo had disassembled the head of the radioactive unit and extracted a cylinder containing the cobalt-60 source. He then loaded the material into his truck, where he drilled into the cylinder, causing some cobalt-60 granules to spill into the bed of the vehicle. The truck, now contaminated by the cobalt-60, subsequently suffered a mechanical failure upon Sotelo's return from the junkyard and remained immobile near his home in Ciudad Juárez for 40 days.
What was the local impact of this pollution incident?
> "Some of the highest levels of contamination detected in the area were reportedly found in the company’s furnace, which is about 1.5 miles southwest of the BMS Foods facility where the shrimp was processed. Investigators think that radioactive dust was released into the environment after PMT inadvertently smelted scrap metal containing cesium-137. “Because it’s airborne, the contamination can be carried by wind,”..."
Half life tracking presumably would give a "birthday" for the cesium-137 source. Given they suspect scrap contamination in a recycling smelter, its at best informing to root cause. That, and the length of the tail yet to come as it passes down the ladder.
“Half life tracking” isn’t really a thing — decay is a memory-less process (by definition), so there’s no distinction in decay rate between a lot of old Cesium 137, and a bit of young Cesium 137. The way to put an age on the contamination is by looking at the ratio of Cesium 137 and Barium 137, which presumedly someone has done…
> "by looking at the ratio of Cesium 137 and Barium 137, which presumedly someone has done…"
That's impractical; the decay product Ba-137 is stable and already present in much larger amounts, compared against which the Cs-137 decay products are undetectable.
Thank you for clarifying. My intent was where you get to, badly understood and expressed.
> “easiest explanation” is that a medical or industrial device containing cesium-137 was inadvertently reprocessed as scrap metal. The radioactive material could have become gaseous after entering the PMT furnace and then been released from the facility’s smokestack
Which is highly concerning in itself. A ban on any steel imports from that country should happen immediately and strict requirements on preprocess detection and post process radiation levels should be put in place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60_c...
Is the classic example of what happens when you don't do rad checking at the foundry. You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.
You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.
Well now that's the glass half empty point of view, from the glass half full vantage point, I'm no scientist but my understanding of science if you get bit by a radioactive species, those traits a nuclearly transferred upon your person as superpowers. So what I'm thinking the upside is all the peoples who eat these shrimps will also develop superpowers as the new superhero - SHRIMP-MAN:
Protectionist regimes and opaque supply chains that aim to maximize profits above all else aren't motivated to provide honest answers, only a least-damaging public relations narrative.
See also: Prachin Buri radiation incident. It's unclear what, if any, link there is between the two incidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prachin_Buri_radiation_inciden...
https://qz.com/thailand-radioactive-cylinder-found-foundry-1...
$1200.00 reward for finding the missing cesium, and a $3500 fine if they can prove the people who lost it, lost it, go Thialand government, it's not clear what the cesium was bieng used for in.a coal plant, perhaps as an x ray source, for welds, and metal integrity, but in any case there is a strict chain of comand for who has resonsibility for ANY "source"(xray), bad mojo and they are pretending that a source can be opened and handled and clearly lost and spread around, without people suffering extream consiquences imediatly
buddys who have done industrial xray, another who was an "xray welder", weld, xray guys set up, everybody vacates 150', weld, exray guys set up, repeat 733 times and you have a bridge, or whatever
this shit is very very dangerous, and impossible to survive at close range without getting hurt, fast
something is very very wrong in Thailand, and there is most deffinitly a clumsy cover up
assholes.
Also very worrying they don't have detection at the recycling input stream. You'd think everyone would have learned from the Mexico event.
> Vicente Sotelo Alardín, then an employee of the medical center, dismantled the unit on December 6, 1983, to sell it as scrap metal at the Fénix junkyard at the request of the hospital's maintenance manager. Sotelo had disassembled the head of the radioactive unit and extracted a cylinder containing the cobalt-60 source. He then loaded the material into his truck, where he drilled into the cylinder, causing some cobalt-60 granules to spill into the bed of the vehicle. The truck, now contaminated by the cobalt-60, subsequently suffered a mechanical failure upon Sotelo's return from the junkyard and remained immobile near his home in Ciudad Juárez for 40 days.
Oh my god, what an idiot.
> at the request of the hospital's maintenance manager
This one?
Or any one of the many orphan source -> scrap metal events, which happens scarily often
Great, transparent investigation by the Indonesian authorities.
[flagged]
This is a dupe from like, last week.