Australia’s lost radioactive capsule found on Wednesday

A lost radioactive capsule found after a search along a 1,400km stretch of the arid Western Australian outback is due to arrive in Perth on Thursday.

The capsule is 6mm in diameter and 8mm long – about the size of a tic-tac sweet.

It was found in the state’s remote north-west on Wednesday.

Verified by members of the Australian Defence Force and sealed in a lead container, the capsule will be securely stored at an unidentified facility.

Investigators are working on piecing together just how it fell from a truck.

The week-long search retracing the truck’s journey involved 100 people from at least five government agencies using specialised radiation detection equipment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lauded its recovery. ‘Little radioactive, tiny little thing that they were looking for like a needle in a haystack. But they found it to their great credit, though,’ he told a Perth radio station.

The Caesium-137 capsule lost more than two weeks ago was found when Australian-invented CORIS360 radiation equipment mounted to a car driving along the Great Northern Highway detected gamma rays 74km south of the town of Newman in the state’s Kimberley region.

Using portable detection equipment, officials said the team found the capsule at 11.13am local time on Wednesday, about 2m from the side of the road in an area far from any community.

No one is thought to have been exposed to radiation and the site was not permanently contaminated, officials said.

For more information, go to www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australias-radioactive-capsule-to-be-moved-to-storage-as-investigation-starts