A tiny but dangerously radioactive capsule that fell from a truck along a remote stretch of road in the Australian outback last month was found on Wednesday, authorities said.
The solid, silver-colored cylinder is smaller than a human fingernail, just eight millimeters by six millimeters, but authorities say it contains enough cesium-137 to cause acute radiation sickness.
It was discovered on the side of a desert road just south of the Western Australian town of Newman, near the desert mine it came from, state emergency services commissioner Darren Klemm said.
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“It’s a good result,” Western Australia’s emergency services minister Stephen Dawson told reporters. “It certainly is a needle in a haystack that has been found, and I think Western Australians can sleep better tonight.”
Authorities had scoured hundreds of miles of highway in search of the tiny capsule.
The six-day search came to an end after a search vehicle detected radiation while traveling on the highway, and authorities are now working to safely remove the capsule before taking it to safety, Klemm said.
The teams would then place it in a lead-lined container to shield people from its radiation before transporting it.
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“In the extremely unlikely event that the capsule leaks, we will repair the area,” Klemm told the news conference in Perth.
The capsule disappeared from a truck headed for suburban Perth from a remote mine operated by Rio Tinto, 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) north of the state capital Perth, just beyond the distance between Paris and Madrid.
The gauge the capsule was a part of was originally collected on January 12 from the Gudai-Darri iron ore mine and delivered to the Perth suburb of Malaga on January 16, Rio Tinto previously said.
But the package was not opened until January 25, when the indicator was found to be “broken” and the radioactive capsule was missing. The state police were informed the same day.
The resource giant previously apologized, explaining that the radioactive capsule, part of an indicator used in the mining industry to measure the density of iron ore, was being transported by a certified contractor when it went missing.
Authorities believe the container it was in collapsed due to vibrations during transport before it apparently fell through the hole left by a missing bolt.
But an investigation into the incident was ongoing and would determine whether penalties would apply for handling the hazardous material, Western Australia’s health director Andrew Robertson said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier responded to reports that those responsible for the missing shot could only face penalties of A$1,000 (US$700) under current law.
“One, it shouldn’t have been lost. That’s first and second, yes of course that number is ridiculously low, but I suspect it’s ridiculously low because people didn’t think such an item would be lost.”
