Emergency services scour Australian outback for dangerous lost radioactive capsule

The small silver cylinder contains caesium 137 and emits the equivalent of 10 X-rays an hour. It can cause skin damage, burns and radiation sickness

It’s believed to have fallen off the back of a truck en route to Perth. Authorities are attempting to locate the capsule using the gamma rays it emits

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Crews search for a tiny but dangerous radioactive capsule from a Rio Tinto mine after it disappeared while being transported across the Australian outback. Photo: Western Australia Department Of Fire And Emergency Services / Handout

Published: 9:27am, 30 Jan 2023Updated: 9:34am, 30 Jan 2023

Authorities in Western Australia are searching for a tiny but potentially deadly radioactive capsule that got lost while being transported on a truck from a mine to a depot in the city of Perth.

Emergency services said they were hampered by a lack of equipment and have called on the federal government and other states to provide assistance.

Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services has deployed teams with handheld radiation detection devices and metal detectors along 36km (22 miles) of a busy freight route to look for the 8 millimetres by 6 millimetres (0.31 inches by 0.24 inches) unit.

It’s believed to have fallen off the back of a truck on a 1,400km (870-mile) journey from the Rio Tinto mine in Newman to the Perth suburb of Malaga.

“What we’re not doing is trying to find a tiny little device by eyesight,” said Superintendent Darryl Ray, adding they were concentrating on populated areas north of Perth and strategic sites along the Great Northern Highway.