FOG BLOG WORLD LOG: RADIO ACTIVE CAPSULE FOUND AND RECOVERED ON REMOTE ROAD IN AUSTRALIA!

Missing radioactive capsule found on remote road in Australia Brisbane, Australia

Authorities scanning a remote Australian highway for a tiny missing radioactive capsule have found it by the roadside, after a challenging search likened to trying to find a needle in a haystack.

State emergency authorities announced the discovery on Wednesday afternoon, six days after the capsule, containing highly radioactive Caesium-137, was discovered missing from a package sent hundreds of kilometers from a Rio Tinto mining site in northern Western Australia to the capital Perth.

“Locating this object was a monumental challenge – the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack,” state Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a news conference Wednesday.

The capsule’s disappearance sparked a massive search of the highway with specialized radiation detection units – and prompted warnings to the public not to approach the capsule, which could cause serious burns on contact with skin.

Authorities believe the capsule – about 8 millimeters high and 6 millimeters round – somehow fell off the back of a truck as it was being transported 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) along the Great Northern Highway from the mine.