That’s what it reminded me of too. Yeah, it’s pretty awful.
There’s a photo of the source lying around after the theft, from here
Does anyone know where the actual radioactive source is located in that assembly? Possibly there’s an internal shutter in that module - the thieves might get away with it if they needed to twist that shaft on the end of the module to align the 60Co source with an internal collimator.
On the other hand, if that’s the actual radiation capsule exposed on the left end of the module, rather than just a hinge, then the thieves probably do get complimentary membership of club litvinenko
They definitely took it apart.
Before:
After:
The only diagram I can find of that unit is from a Canadian stamp. It looks like the actual cobalt-60 is on a rod that would slide in front of the large window.
Tragically, a family of three (innocent) people who discovered it after the thieves had abandoned it are likely exposed also. There’s not even the schadenfreude of the thieves getting their just reward.
You’d need to dissolve the cobalt in acid and then add it to the water supply, or sprinkle the results over a busy area of town to cause disruption. It’d need some planning but wouldn’t be completely impossible. If you can sacrifice one person to manufacture the dirty bomb and a second person to carry it to the point of dispersal, you could cause a headache for sure - but it lacks the ‘glory’ aspect of immolation - you’d need to recruit a couple of patient zealots who were willing to die an agonising death over a 2-3 week period for the cause, rather than the practically instant oblivion of detonating a bomb. I think it’d be difficult to find those people, so we’re probably safe.
Nobody seems to be saying what make and model the device stolen was (not that the manufacturer, even if they aren’t 3 mergers and a bankruptcy gone by now, would necessarily have datasheets online) so it’s hard to say what the internal layout is, and how much tampering you have to do to defeat the housing.
(Incidentally, in my unsuccessful search, I found that the NRC does have lists of vendors and sealed source products. Not much help, everything from tiny amounts of tritium in gunsights to fairly mean-sounding beam sources all mashed together. I am very curious, though, about what neat toys the U.S. Department of Justice has put together. On page 84 of the Active Vendors/Active Products list, they have two entries: “Model A” and “Model B”. Some kind of radioisotopic Justice-bot? Those shiny robotic police from THX-1138? A modernized trial by ordeal?)
Also who is “General Store” and why does “BOLO TIE” require an NRC certification? Did I step into Fallout cosplay?
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[quote=“fuzzyfungus, post:45, topic:15750”] I am very curious, though, about what neat toys the U.S. Department of Justice has put together. On page 84 of the Active Vendors/Active Products list, they have two entries: “Model A” and “Model B”
[/quote]
I think these are actually lumps of depleted uranium - this link calls the Department of Justice Model A and B “Depleted Uranium Collimator(s)” and everything else in the table nearby is a radiation detector of some sort. My guess is that it’s a shield or screen used to make a Geiger counter or similar detector into a directional detector. Depleted Uranium is better than lead at screening gamma rays and it principally emits alpha particles which are easy to screen out. They license it so that people remember not to dispose of depleted uranium in the trash, but I don’t think it’s particularly radioactive.
Although since there is no trial by radiation ordeal, nor radiation-dealing Justice bot listed, there is a gap in the market.
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General store also have NRC licensed radioactive “DRESS PIN” and “PAPERWEIGHT” products (?!). My guess is it’s a tacky gift from a Uranium mining town. The license is WA-729-S-101-S and WA is washington state - There’s an open pit Uranium mine in Spokeane WA which is now receiving a $160 million superfund cleanup effort - the proprietor was famous for wearing a uranium ore Bolo tie.
You can still buy your own piece of nuclear heritage from various suppliers.

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Possibly not here (maybe), but this is the internet…
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I can’t go into details for legal reasons, but through friends in the environment industry I’ve heard so many examples of the incorrect disposal of everything from dangerous chemicals to human body parts that you’d be surprised that any waste is secured at all.
That would be NCR.
Given the likely dose, chances are they are either already dead or comatose. Cobalt-60 is a rather intense source of high-energy gammas, to the point that even the “Walking Ghost” phenomena of high radiation doses simply doesn’t occur.
Chances are, they are in a field relatively near to where they opened the canister. And the easiest way to find the corpses is to look overhead for circling scavengers. . .
But that’s where the best candy is kept.
There was an article I’ve been trying to find since this story broke. Similar, medical equipment being abandoned and junk scrappers cracking open something and finding sparkling glowing blue powder. That they collected and took home and gave to their kids to play with. Which they did. Drawing with it on their bodies and family members… ugh…
In that case it was negligence on the part of the medical clinic that had shut down and just left stuff there.
Hideous way to die.
That story! Yes! Where/when was that? My google-fu is failing!
THATS the story I’ve been looking for! Thank you!
Probably not. Had a summer job in a chemical plant for two years once.
In recent years I learned a lot about all the nasty stuff you can find in old buildings, especially asbestos.
Most people are amazingly careless with materials that “don’t feel” like they’re dangerous, i.e. anything that doesn’t kill you outright.
To those who think that the price probably paid by the hijackers is horribly disproportionate: It is important to remember that somebody who points a gun at you is threatening to MURDER you. And in Mexico now, just about NOBODY is stupid enough to regard this as an idle threat. If the driver had killed them in an attempt to defend himself would we regard that as “horribly disproportionate?” If the Federales had shot them while they were pointing a gun at the driver? It is not stealing the truck that raised this to a literal matter of life or death, it is the threat to kill the driver. Given the high levels of violence by narco-terrorists he can regard himself as fortunate that they didn’t kill him after he got out of the truck. So the people who live in the shadow of the cartels and their routine, casual violence tend to have a different attitude from those who live in comfortable and relatively peaceful environs…So the death penalty may be disproportionate, but certainly not horribly so.
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Ever heard the term “cruel and unusual punishment”?
In case you haven’t:
Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to it.
“An eye for an eye etc.” was meant as a limitation.
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Well, perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned here: “If it ain’t yours, don’t touch it, specially if the warnings are written in a language you don’t understand.”
I am NEVER opening a parcel, package or container with writing on it that is NOT in a language I can parse.
warnings are written in a language you don’t understand
It’s actually a real problem, though I presume that these thieves were well aware of intricacies of the Spanish language.
This seemingly simple conundrum (just use a radiation hazard symbol!) is complicated by the fact that such a trespass would prove lethal if it took place not only in 60 years but in 10,000 or 100,000. China, the planet’s oldest continuous civilization, stretches back, at most, 5,000 years. And the world’s oldest inscribed clay tablets—the earliest examples of written communication—date only from 3,000 or 3,500 B.C. It’s impossible to say what apocalyptic event might separate 21st-century Americans from our 210th-century successors. Successors, mind you, who could live in a vastly more sophisticated society than we do or a vastly more primitive one.
We should just adopt an international symbol to put on containers that house something dangerous. I propose an image with spiders leaping from a box onto someone’s face.
