Hazardous Finds: When and Where Radiation Sources Have Been Lost in the World?

Radiation sources are objects that contain radioactive substances (radionuclide sources) or generate radiation under certain conditions (generating sources).

Radiation sources are strictly controlled; they should be registered, properly stored, etc. Since 1993, the IAEA has kept track of how many radiation sources were reveled beyond regulatory control. The 2020 report states 3,686 cases over the entire observation period. Jonathan Cobb from the World Nuclear Association noted in an interview with the BBC that the number of radioactive objects successfully transported annually is about 15 million units. This amount significantly exceeds the disappeared radiation sources, and properly transported radiation sources do not pose a threat to people and nature.

Tragic cases related to radiation sources have occurred not frequently in history, but they caused a great resonance and had much in common: a random object similar to an interesting piece of iron turned out to be a radiation source. More information on radiation sources became available over time, but the experience of source management was gained particularly due to such cases that will be discussed in this article.

Deadly Revealing

In March 1962, a ten-year-old boy in Mexico City brought home a ball that turned out to be an industrial x-ray source containing cobalt-60. Reports of the origin of the source vary: either it was found in a landfill, or in a field, or it was already in a yard when the boy’s family moved into this house. The boy kept the ball in his pants pocket for several days. On 1 April, mother put her son’s “find” in a kitchen cabinet, where it remained until July 22. The boy died a month after contact with the radiation source on 29 April. Subsequently, his mother who was six months pregnant died on 19 July. The two-year-old sister died on 18 August, and the grandmother who lived with the family died on 15 October in the same year. The boy’s father also received significant radiation dose and survived, probably because he worked outside the home and was less exposed to radiation.

Most Widespread Poisoning

The most notorious case of revealing radiation sources occurred in the Brazilian city of Goiania in 1987. At that time, two men collecting scrap metal reveled a radiotherapy device on a territory of an abandoned hospital. Without knowing anything about the installation and believing that it could be used as scrap metal, the men removed a block containing cesium-137. They brought the unit home and tried to disassemble it, this resulted in destruction of a capsule that contained a source in the form of salt (cesium chloride). Environmental contamination occurred that resulted in external and internal exposure of many people.

After destruction of the capsule, the remains of the block, in which the source was located, were sold to an owner of a scrap metal warehouse. He noticed that a blue glow came out of the substance in the dark. This spectacle attracted the attention of several people, and for a few days, friends and relatives of the entrepreneur came to see the unusual phenomenon. Particles of the radioactive material having the size of rice grains were distributed among several families.

They picked up small fragments, rubbed their skin with them, and gave them to other people, because of which the spread of radioactive contamination began. This continued for five days; after this time, many people had symptoms of gastrointestinal diseases resulting from this exposure. Initially, these symptoms were not recognized as a consequence of radiation exposure. However, one of the irradiated people associated these diseases with the radioactive capsule and took its remains to the city sanitary administration. Then the real reasons for the deterioration of people’s health became clear. As a result, four people died: the 6-year-old niece of the scrap metal warehouse owner, his wife and two men who cut the capsule. This accident is the largest after the Chornobyl and Fukushima accident in terms of spreading and the number of victims.

 Criminal Brothers

Theft of radioactive materials in Estonia in 1994 had tragic consequences. Three brothers from the town of Tammik who were collecting scrap metal found themselves in a fenced area in the forest. After an unsuccessful attempt to break into a large building they climbed into a small barn with a ladder leading underground. The brothers did not know that this was a radioactive waste storage facility.

The central storage facility for radioactive waste generated resulting from the use of radionuclides in Estonia was constructed in 1963 in Tammik, 12 km south of Tallinn. Reconstruction was started in the mid-1980s to modernize the facility in compliance with the new revised criteria for the safe management of radioactive waste, but this work has not been completed due to lack of resources.

There were warning signs on the gate, but the intruders did not see them because they climbed over the fence in another place. When the older brother went down to the first section of the storage facility, he found a metal container with a source and gave it to the other brothers. As he did this, a metal cylinder fell out of the open tube in the container. The middle brother threw the cylinder approximately 18 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter back into the hole. The younger brother picked up and put in his pocket the shorter cylinder of similar diameter, which was a radioactive source according to further research.

The brothers also broke into the liquid waste storage facility, which was not equipped with an alarm, and took out several aluminum drums, emptying their contents into the storage facility. They placed the drums and metal container into the trunk of a car and took them to Tallinn, where they were sold as scrap metal.

Returning home, the younger brother felt unwell, he put the cylinder from his pocket in the kitchen, and 12 days after entering the storage facility he died. The man’s 13-year-old stepson found the cylinder in the box and held it in his hands for a few seconds. Only after their dog died and the boy was diagnosed with radiation burns to his hands, the cause of man’s death was established: he had received a whole-body radiation dose of 4,000 rad. The delay of information was related to the unwillingness of the brothers to confess to the theft.

In 2008, the storage facility was decommissioned, and radioactive waste with a total amount of 55 TBq was sorted and disposed.

Hazardous Heater

In December 2001, three woodcutters revealed in the village of Lia (Georgia) the cores of two Soviet radioisotope thermoelectric generators containing strontium-90. The generators were constructed in the 1980s with an activity of 1295 TBq each. The woodcutters were looking for wood, and when they came across two metal cylinders, they decided to use them instead of heaters – they slept with their backs resting on them. Subsequently, all woodcutters sought medical help. One man had severe burn injuries and required multiple skin grafting. After almost three years in a hospital, he died of sepsis caused by radiation sickness. The team for generator disposal consisted of 24 people, each of whom was limited to a maximum of 40 seconds of exposure (maximum 20 mSv) while transporting the generators.

 Australian Truck

In January 2023, a capsule containing cesium-137 fell out of a truck during transportation in Western Australia. The capsule was placed in a sensor used at the Gudai Darry mine to measure the density of iron ore supply. The truck was transporting this sensor, but something went wrong, and they discovered at the destination point that the measuring device was broken and a mounting bolt, screws and a capsule with radiation source were missing. Probably, vibration due to the truck movement caused the screws and bolt to loosen, and the capsule fell first from the sensor and then from a crack in the truck.

Then the authorities declared radiation hazard along the truck’s route, which is 1,400 km. The size of the capsule being sought was 8 mm x 6 mm. Local residents were warned not to pick up the capsule if found, because it emits both gamma and beta rays and has a half-life of 30 years. Interaction with the source could lead to burns, and longer exposure could lead to acute radiation sickness.

Fortunately, the capsule was found after 7 days of search operations. On the side of the road near the city of Newman, the radiation source was revealed by a search team that used specialized radiation equipment. 

When Radiation Source Was Lost in Ukraine

At the end of the 1970s, a capsule with cesium-137 that was used in a device for water level measurement was lost in the Karan quarry in the Donetsk region, where gravel and crushed stone were mined. The capsule has not been found, supply of crushed stone from the quarry had to be stopped.

In 1989, a mother and two children died in a family that was the first to receive an apartment in a house in Kramatorsk. The new family that settled in this apartment lost their eldest 11-year-old son because of cancer, the youngest child and the head of the family himself became seriously ill. Doctors could not immediately establish the cause of their patients’ illnesses. The radiation accident was revealed only after the apartment resident contacted the local sanitary and epidemiological station. In the wall of the apartment, they found a radiation source containing cesium-137 radionuclide walled up in a concrete slab, on the surface of which the exposure dose rate of gamma radiation was 1800 R/hour. After removing a part of the wall, the gamma background in the apartments was 25-30 μR/hour.

 Incident at Observatory

In October 2019, an exceeded permissible radiation background level was recorded in Kyiv in one of the premises of the Borys Sreznevsky Central Geophysical Observatory. An exceeded permissible level of exposure dose rate was revealed during the inspection of one of the premises in the physical and chemical laboratory building. The maximum recorded EDR in the premise was 620 μSv/h, and in the adjacent room it made up 170 μSv/h.

Employees of the State Emergency Service dismantled part of the wall in the laboratory building, this allowed detecting and removing the radiation source that was previously identified as cesium-137.

At the initiative of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, experts of the State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety additionally examined the territory of Nauky Avenue and the nearby streets. Radiation reconnaissance in the ground at a depth of about 0.2 m revealed another source of cesium-137 with maximum EDR from the surface of 800 μSv/hour. Employees of the Radon Association took the revealed radiation sources and moved them to the enterprise for storage.

A survey of the territory around the Central Geophysical Observatory after withdrawal of the sources showed that the radiation background remains within permissible limits (maximum recorded EDR is 0.17 μSv/h). Man-made radionuclides were also not revealed in the surveyed area.

Radiation Sources Lost Due to Full-Scale russian Invasion of Ukraine

In 2022, radiation sources were used in Ukraine by 4,620 entities in the field of nuclear energy use, 2,886 entities of them whose activities are not exempted from licensing use radiation sources, including 2087 healthcare institutions of different forms of ownership. As of the end of 2022, 26,558 radiation sources were registered in the State Register of Radiation Sources and Doses, of which: 8,420 are sealed radionuclide sources; 18,138 are non-radionuclide installations generating radiation (generators).

Radiation hazard related to radiation sources has increased with the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For 36 days from February to March 2022, russian occupiers stayed in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. They entered the storage facility for radiation sources, where samples of radioactive solutions and calibration sources were stored, stole and damaged 133 sources with a total activity of 7 million becquerels. In addition, the laboratory of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants was looted and destroyed. Radiation sources and samples of fuel-containing materials from the Shelter object, which scientists used for research, were stored there.

The joint “Survey” Project of the SNRIU and the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) was aimed at radiation survey of the territories in the Kyiv region affected by hostilities and temporary occupation by russian troops in the period from 24 February during two years. As part of the Project and at the request of local residents, the crew of the SSTC NRS radiation reconnaissance vehicle RanidSONNI conducted a radiation survey of private estates, apartments and houses, as well as public institutions, including schools, state medical institutions, administrative buildings and parts of intercity roads in the Kyiv region.

On 2 December 2022, SSTC NRS experts of the RanidSONNI crew conducted a radiation survey in the village of Myrcha. During the survey of the communal institution “Myrcha General Secondary Education Establishment of the I-II level – Preschool Education Institution,” exceeded EDR was revealed in one of the utility premises of the institution. DP-63A dosimeter (1965) containing radium-226 was revealed as a result of a detailed survey. The exposure dose rate of gamma radiation at the surface of the item was 14.0 μSv/h. The item was packed in a plastic bag, sealed and transported to Radioactive Waste Disposal Site at the Central Production Site of the Radon Association.

There is also information on the loss of radiation sources as a result of military operations. In 2022, the State Register of Radiation Sources and Doses received information from the Odesa and Kirovohrad regions on the loss of seven items of BIS-4AN sealed sources with 90Sr/90Y radionuclide with the activity of 9.3×108 Bq as part of RIO-3A glaciation alarms.

The SNRIU received messages from two entities at the de-occupied territories in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions (the National Scientific Center “Institute of Metrology” and Sumy Customs of the State Customs Service) regarding the probable loss of regulatory control over radionuclide radiation sources, including categories 1-3. Due to the minimum distance to the border with the russian federation, the threat of artillery and rocket attacks, mining of the territory and limited access, staying in these territories is dangerous for personnel and, accordingly, physical inventory of radiation sources, assessing the damage caused and quantitative losses of radiation sources is impossible and will be carried out with creation of safe conditions. These and other issues are under SNRIU control.

Table 12 Radiation incidents with radiation sources in 2022

Title	Total number	Radioactive contaminated scrap metal	Revealed RSs	Lost RSs	RSs in illicit trafficking
Central	–	–	–	–	–
North-Western	3	3	–	–	–
Eastern	2	–	–	2	–
Northern	3	–	–	–	3
Southern	1	1	–	–	–
Western	1	–	–	–	–
Inspection in the Exclusion Zone	60			60

According to the SNRIU Report on the state of nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine in 2022 of the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine

 Where Radiation Source Can Be Found?

Scrap metal seekers have a fairly high risk of coming across a radiation source. People often do not know what radiation sources look like, and perceive capsules with hazardous substances as a workpiece for metal products, or a small thing that will certainly be “useful around the house”. Radiation sources are frequently found in country houses, garages and sheds among rubbish; they are passed on to new owners as an unpleasant “bonus” when purchasing real estate.

Since radioactive materials are used in medicine to treat cancer patients and for diagnostics, it is quite possible to find radiation sources among spare parts of old diagnostic devices.

Americium-241 isotope that emits alpha and gamma rays when it decays can be found in homes around the world in… fire alarms. When 66 smoke detectors were lost in the Canadian province of Ontario in 2019, they were listed as missing radioactive materials.

Traces of radiation sources can be found in old photographic equipment, such as lenses and measurement devices. A typical feature of radioactivity is that objects glow at night.

How to Determine If a Room Is Hazardous?

You should start by measuring the radiation dose rate in a room where suspicious things may be located. An ordinary household dosimeter is unlikely to help in this case – the conclusions of qualified specialists working in the accredited institutions are needed in accordance with the requirements of DSTU EN ISO/IEC 17025:2019 (EN ISO/IEC 17025:2017, IDT; ISO/IEC 17025:2017, IDT) “General Requirements for the Competence of the Testing and Calibration Laboratories”. For example, the SSTC NRS Testing Center offers residents of Kyiv and the region its radiation survey services, based on the results of which a client receives testing minutes and a detailed report.

Whom Should You Contact If You Find an Unknown Item?

The radiation hazard sign is a core with three petals indicating alpha-, beta- and gamma radiation, it is applied on equipment or containers containing radiation sources.

The shamrock symbol first appeared in 1946 at the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley. It was then set on a blue background, but this color was commonly used on information signs and faded over time. This led to a change in the colors of the radiation hazard sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sign can be placed on a label, plate or as an engraving on metal. If you find an object (especially metal) with such markings, be careful: this may be an “orphan” radiation source.

In this case:

• avoid contact with a suspicious object;
• warn others about the hazard;
• immediately report the discovery to the Rescue Service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine by calling 101, National Police 102, 0-800-50-02-020, (044) 254-91-02, State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine, tel. of the operational duty officer (24 hours a day) (044) 277-12-12, and local governmental bodies in a village where you found an “orphan” source.

Uatom.org Editorial Board