Journalist Antti Kurra explains in a one-minute video why Australia is now looking for a capsule smaller than a five-cent coin.
Australia is looking for a capsule containing the cesium-137 isotope less than five centimeters in size. The capsule disappeared from the truck, presumably on the way from the 12th to the 16th. January in Western Australia, but the exact date is unknown. The disappearance was only noticed on January 25, when the load was unloaded.
The capsule was stored in a package made for it, which apparently broke due to vibration when the truck drove on a bad road. A bolt had come loose from the bottom of the car, and the capsule fell out of the hole along the way.
Rio Tinto, the mining company that lost the capsule, has urged people who might find the capsule to stay at least five meters away from it. Staying near the capsule can even cause radiation sickness.
Rio Tinto has been in the headlines before. In 2020, the company blew up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal cave in Australia. The company said at the time that the explosion was a misunderstanding. The association of indigenous peoples has said that they tried to prevent the explosion.
See the editor below Antti Kurran one-minute explanatory video on the topic.
You can find more short news videos by Antti Kurra and Sara Salme at Areena.