Cobalt-60 gestolen in Mexico, container leeg teruggevonden.

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At around 1 a.m. Monday, a man armed with a handgun knocked on the passenger window. When the passenger rolled down his window, the gunman demanded the keys to the vehicle, Morales said.

Both the driver and his assistant were taken to an empty lot where they were bound and told not to move. They heard one of the assailants use a walkie-talkie type device or phone to tell someone, "It's done," Morales said

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Mexican police located a truck stolen on Monday which contained dangerous radioactive material the UN warned could be used to construct a “dirty bomb.” An official has said the container holding that cargo was found empty.

The vehicle was found close to where it was stolen outside of Mexico City as it was transporting cobalt-60 from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center. Mexico’s nuclear safety director Juan Eibenschutz said radioactivity had been detected about a half mile (1 kilometer) from where the truck and container were located.

Mexico’s national nuclear safety commission CNSNS has said that the thieves, thought to be unaware of the contents which have now been located, removed it from its protective container and were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz told the AP, saying that exposure could cause death almost immediately if in close proximity.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz added.

So far there were no indications that the theft of the cobalt was an intentional act of terrorism, said Eibenshutz. The stolen radioactive material was used in radiation therapy equipment that is now obsolete and is being phased out of Mexico’s public health system.

Federal police and the military have been mobilized in the municipalities of Hueypoxtla and Zumpango. CNSNS says the recovered radioactive material will be returned to a sealed case as soon as possible

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Op donderdag 5 december 2013 08:33 schreef Megumi het volgende:
De dieven zullen een redelijk pijnlijke dood sterven denk ik zo. Acute stralingsziekte is echt een rotte manier om dood te gaan.

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Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday.

The official said the six were arrested Thursday and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for observation and testing for radiation exposure. Once they are cleared, they will be turned over to federal authorities in connection with the case of a cargo truck stolen Monday at gunpoint that was carrying the extremely dangerous material.

Hidalgo state Health Minister Pedro Luis Noble said Friday that the six suffered from skin irritations and dizziness, but that none are in grave condition and may be released soon. Only one was vomiting, a sign of radiation poisoning.

But based on the tests, “none are showing immediate signs of radiation poisoning,” Noble told Foro TV.

The cobalt-60 theft triggered alerts in six Mexican states and Mexico City, as well as international notifications to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It raised concerns that the material could have been stolen to make a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material.

The atomic energy agency said the cobalt has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning “it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour.”

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The cobalt-60 pellets were left about a kilometer (half mile) from the truck in an empty rural field.