2 dangerous Isotopes of iridium-192 were lost in Papua New Guinea – in 1999

They were taken along with a car, parked in an apartment block in the capitol city of Port Moresby

They were recovered by police – after a shootout !

We don't know if anyone was killed as a result of this illegal storage of isotopes of iridium-192

The loss of the dangerous isotopes was never reported to the radioactive-sources authorities !

The police seem to have been deliberately left unaware of the seriousness of the situation at the time of their recovery & were more concerned about the amount of bullet holes in the recovered car "... we think about 18"

The camera is the size of a large handbag but can weigh up to 30kg due to the heavy radiation shielding of lead & depleted uranium – not easy to lose you’d think. The actual sealed-radioactive-source is about the size of a paracetamol tablet & is attached to a small metal chain that is used to remove the source from its protective shielding – by means of a remote wind-out mechanism – to expose the x-ray film & is then wound back into its shielded container. More information can be found at the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) branches for each Australian state; one referenced below

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA)

2 isotopes of iridium-192 were lost because they were stored in the boot of a car instead of the legally required safe storage facility. The car was stolen from the carpark of the company office & accommodation unit in an apartment block in Airvos Avenue, Port Moresby (capitol city of Papua New Guinea)

The dangerous isotopes are continually emitting radiation, even when contained in the heavily shielded camera & were usually kept inside the apartment or the boot of the car instead of an approved storage facility – away from people

There have been many instances of people taking the radioactive source from the camera – sometimes totally unaware of the lethal potential of this pill-sized death-trap attached to a small chain. Many of these people – along with the people they encountered or were with later – received high doses of radiation which made them very sick or caused death

An example of this is an incident that happened in Morocco where 8 members of the public died when a source was removed from the isotope shielding camera. An abridged excerpt is taken from an IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) report issued from the Proceedings of an International Conference on The Safety of Radiation Sources & the Security of Radioactive Materials. Jointly Organized by The European Commission, The International Atomic Energy Agency, The International Criminal Police Organization-Interpol, & The World Customs Organizaton, and Held In Dijon, France, 14-18 September 1998

This IAEA conference is from about the same time as the incident in PNG & a report-excerpt is referenced below

www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1042_web.pdf

3.2.7. Lost radiography source, Morocco, 1984

"In this serious accident, eight members of the public died from overexposure to radiation from a radiography source. A 1.1 TBq (30 Ci) 192Ir source became disconnected from its... shielded container... a passer-by picked up the tiny metal cylinder and took it home... and a total of 8 persons (the passer-by, members of his family and some relatives) died; the clinical diagnosis was 'lung haemorrhages'. It was initially assumed that the deaths were the result of poisoning. Only after the last family member had died was it suspected that the deaths might have been caused by radiation..."

This is a classic example of a radiography accident and of the consequences that can ensue when the radiation source – normally inside the protective camera – has been accessed

Please note that there are many other lost isotope incident reports to be found on the Safety of Radiation Sources websites; & many of these resulted in serious injuries or deaths

The conference also records its concern regarding the possibility of these radioactive sources being stolen for profit – possibly even used to make 'dirty-bombs'. This can be found in section: Measures To Prevent Illicit Trafficking In Nuclear And Other Radioactive Materials (pg 71 of the above report). Concerns about poorly controlled sources are also addressed in the IAEA dirty-bomb conference in 2003 (link below) as well as numerous other places

IAEA dirty-bomb-conference-2003

Missing safety equipment

Another example of the attitude of these employers to safety is that no personal radiation recording devices were ever issued. These ‘film badge dosimeters’ must legally be worn by all people involved in the use of x-ray machines & live (radiation) sources & record the exact amount of radiation that a person receives during the handling of this dangerous equipment. They are then sent to a special facility that processes them & returns the dose received; small doses are expected & deemed acceptable but more that the threshold & the employee will be prevented from working in this field for a period of time, e.g., 6 months. These potentially lifesaving devices were promised but never issued

Link to Wikipedia article on dosimeters