The capsule has been found, we can all relax, nobody was irradiated and no mutants were spawned. It fell off the truck 120 Km into the journey and was located 2 metres from the road south of Newman. Kudos to all those involved in the search and recovery; now for the financial reckoning.
I'm West Aussie - we've been told that a bolt / screw fell out of the container on the truck it was being carried in, and it fell through that hole. Yes, there are a lot of people who live in Mt Newman, it's an Iron ore mining town, and there are towns dotted all the way down Great Northern Highway.
Very interesting & thank you for the information🙌 The mind boggles, that regardless of the loose screw, something so small & dangerous, would be kept in a container with a hole in it..🤔 *SLAPS FORHEAD!!
@@ralsharp6013 Yeah, well to be honest ( and to be clear I'm NO conspiracy theorist - far from it ), im not sure I believe it to be honest. Just doesn't wash with me, that anyone would be transporting anything so dangerous, in a container with screws in it, that hasn't been double / triple checked to be a safe transporting method....I'm probably very wrong, but my little "nope, doesn't sound right to me" bell is ringing with this one.
@@roslynjonsson2383 we're a little less sucked in by conspiracies, but they definitely happen and can understand your apprehensive thoughts completely. (Concerning the loose screw yarn).. By the description above, the safe sounds like it was tight as a fishes bum'ole🧐 Hmm, You've defs persuaded me back to thinking, Perhaps someone's telling Pork-pies!🤔🧐
Hot off the press, it's been found just outside of Newman.Special vehicles capable of detecting radio activity were driven both to and from Rio Tinto's site travelling at 50 km per hour.
It's Rio Tinto. Never underestimate how much disregard they have for people and the environment. This is the company that destroys indigenous sacred sites without permission or actual mining licences.
As far as I know, while they prioritise making money over Aboriginal heritage preservation, They typically or always, follow the letter of the law as a minimum which is skewed in mining companies favour
It's the size of a tic tak sweet. Duty of care is not a priority according to Rio Tinto. The damage they did to that Sacred Site beggars belief. Suspect the indigenous people who probably move through the area will not be pleased.
if the casing breaks and your driving it will just fly to oieces and most likely disperse into the surrounding enviroment. Once it rains it will wash away into drains and eventually and 1400kms is a long way but eventually just back into the ocean and surrounding earth. A few seconds of exposure isnt likely to do anything. especially if it somehow got lodged into a tyre, the material between you and the tyre ie steel, plastic rubber, glass carpet even your clothes all help to lower the final dose rate. Even the air helps to limit it and it does so by a inverse square law ie distance is your friend.
They had to have been not following procedures. All radioactive sources must be surrounded in lead and secured in a seperate container clearly labeled radioactive when not in active use.
@@Merrid67play They said that a screw shook loose in transit and left a hole for the gauge to escape from, which, on that (part dirt) route, while unfortunate, does indeed seem possible. Curious how they'll prevent it from happening again
@@S3pra If the roads are that bad they should have removed the source from gauge and transported it in a sealed Pb pot. I thought that is what happened in the old days? Anyhow if the site has no road access or very limited road access the source(s) should be potted in Pb and transported by air out.
i get the happy go lucky attitude in Australia, but when it comes to something like this, I kinda feel maybe the lead & labels legislation should actually be followed! No wonder mining's such a dangerous job if this is their attitude to safety!
Wow those guys with the Geiger counters have a long walk, in full summer (it almost got to 40oC yesterday in Perth). I live in Perth, I do not think I will go north for a while.
G'day Ryan...Radioactive isotopes are extremely common in the mining industry even in the US. They are part of measuring equipment. It was being transported as part of a larger piece of equipment.
And there are very strict policies and laws surrounding they're use. I'm a qualified nuclear density gauge operator and if I just lost a Source one day, I'd be beyond fired, pretty much blacklisted and my employer and myself would face huge fines and possibly jail time. But because it's Rio Tinto they'll get a _slap on the wrist_ which be be more like the government kissing their ring.
If access is bad and roads very rough all isotopes should be removed and sealed in Pb pots then packed into a secure 44 gallon drum(s). Labelled in the correct manner (including source serial numbers) and declared as a radioactive shipment. People have been transporting radioactive sources for decades and there are procedures.
@@_BangDroid_ I certainly would not want to be the RSO (Radiation Safety Officer) on that site! Sounds like things were not done to protocol or procedure.
@@mehere8038 easier said than done. When you consider the scale of operations and the 2 mentioned, it's nothing really. Significant yes but what individual or company hasn't made mistakes in their life/history?
It's very sus. It was apparently bolted onto something that was locked in a metal box. The item it was bolted to was still in the box and still on the truck.
The handler thought he was taking a headache pill he mistakenly ate the radio active capsule...hes head aches gone eyes are a bit warm..he changed the flat tyre without a jack...l don't see a problem 😂 😂 😂
I told you not to let the American's do things, I know the only reason the Canadan's didn't do it was, it too hot for the sled dogs. and the European's are still waiting for a train. Shame it had to be moved at the same as happy hour in the pub.
Hi Ryan, they’ve found it. The women walking along had Geiger counters watching for radio activity. Apparently it has just been found near Newman at the start of the journey. Two metres from the side of the road. A hot zone has been established and then it will be put in a lead box and go to Perth.
Fingers crossed the Geiger counters start going off real soon, or I guess we wait until either people in an area start showing signs of radiation sickness, or noticeable amounts of dead animals start appearing - Just like last time, when I was living in Esperance and birds started literally falling out of the sky. We had flocks of dead birds from one end of town to the other. Some were rare species that will take decades to recover, if they survive at all - It was the head of my department at the local newspaper that sounded the alarm. Picked up dead birds and rushed them up to Murdoch uni, to find out they were all dying from lead poisoning. Scientists came to town, test our water, and all our water tanks were infected, had to be emptied, and all our roofs pressure cleaned. Turned out to be Magellan mining not covering the train carriages of iron ore, containing extreme quantities of lead. My cousin and his 5 kids lived along the rail track, 4 from 5 of his kids have special medical checks every year to keep check on how they're all doing. The mines aren't regulated enough period
It would never happen. its not magic. its like a candle for example. if you touch it it burns ouch... but at 15/30 meters away you can barely even see the candle light. Obviously its a little more powerful than a candle, however a thing called the inverse square law applies with radioactive materialsb meaning the further away you are its like the candle, the weaker the output of particles is. Theres also diferent types of particals some can be blocked by something as thin as a sheet of paper, others need lead, heavy water, concrete and distance. etc etc this is very low down there on the worry about anything becoming of it. I mean if some idiot picks it up and takes it home and puts it in say a necklace or carries it around all day for a weekb they will first start blistering and burning like sunburn then other stuff slowly starts to happen. its not strong enough to instantly kill or instantly give radiation posioning unless you cracked it open or openwd it and ate the bloody powder....
@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi Mate, it was lost in an area of WA that is covered with birds that are attracted to shiny objects of any description, especially crow's / wedge tailed eagles and our 28 port lincoln parrots, who are all known for collecting shiny things. A crow or Wedgy would have that tiny thing cracked open or swallowed in seconds flat.. I just hope they find it very soon.
Ryan, for the technical explanation, it's about ¼" across and ⅓" high... so roughly pill 💊 sized. Why do they have it? It's used in detection or analysis equipment. Why transport like that? It's transported inside a lined case, but the case was a little banged up and it fell out when the case shifted in transit. So truck arrived, packages had moved, case was found with a hole, and in following the floor, found another hole.... so somewhere in the just over 900 miles it's fallen out.
@@godamid4889 it's my understanding that the case was "solid, if a little scuffed up" when it left. Think of it as an old tool box, still weather tight but a bit janky, but one good thump it's tools everywhere.
@@godamid4889 they assumed that the case with a few scuff marks and scratched paint was just as good as if it were brand new. Like a water bottle, you don't find the hole in the top half, until you fill it all.
@@PiersDJackson yeah, that's not how you handle radioactive substances. You don't find out the bottle had a hole in it until ten years later when you develop pancreatic cancer.
I love that you think anyone will actually take their advice & put thongs on lol Also, did the media actually say it, or did Ryan just make that up as a joke? Pretty sure it was just his joke, cause I can't imagine the media bothering to tell people that when they know they'll be ignored, and also in reality, when they'll be wearing shoes anyway if coming in contact with it, cause it's the middle of summer & we're talking about roads, so third degree burns to be out there without something on feet. Burns from the radioactive tictac would be nothing compared to the radiation burns from the sun while picking it up!
The capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed, which had been entrusted to a a third-party contractor to safely package and transport to a facility in Perth. Peace out.
Well someone stuffed-up. In the end any source movement requires sign-off by the local Radiation Safety Officer even if a contractor does the job. The RSO has to check and make sure accidents cannot happen and all is safe, secure and to standard as required by law. Then the contractor must make good on any additional requirements.
A container from a hospital in Brazil containing cesium-137 accidentally ended up at a dump in 1987 and some scavengers found it and sold it because the cesium was a beautiful blue colour. Apparently only a few people got radiation poisoning, and a couple of deaths.
Not sure if it's a typo/finger fumble/unfamiliarity with the terminology, but the measurement unit is 'Sievert'. And in this case, we're actually using milliSieverts - (mS). One whole Sievert is A LOT of radiation to be exposed to at one time 😬
I'll be travelling part of that 1000+km route in April, I'll keep my eye out for it.....Looks like I won't need to worry, found after a 6 day search with detection equipment near the start of the 1000+km route.
Ryan, it's always interesting to see just how very often Rio Tinto have to put out apologies to people, but NEVER EVER explain how the thing happened. I also find it fascinating that you chose an India-based news channel to get your news from Australia. Cheers from Oz.
Rio Tinto also blew up a sacred Aboriginal site a while back and were criticised for the way they handled it, so they were quick to apologise this time!
And busy with truckers and cars so I reckon it's been caught in tread, flung, and I do wonder how robust the capsule is - could it have broken through impact damage etc?
RYAN, Ryan, ryan... If you get time, watch an Australian movie called "The Castle". It contains the line "The only thing dad thought was better than 'Hey, Hey it's Saturday 'is 'The Best of Hey Hey it's Saturday'.
I really want to know how a highly radioactive capsule smaller than a ten-cent piece that would have been packed in the appropriate safety container could go missing out of a transport vehicle?
These are used in flow meters in the process of ore when you enter a area in processing. They are in almost every refinery it's used in the mining sector. They are usually barricaded so you can't get close to them
The capsule is about 6 X 10 millimetres, so about the size of a small fingernail. Distance between Perth and Newman is also 1267 KMs, not 1400. Media screws up everything over here.
We just got back from a road trip on part of that route the day the news broke. Had us checking our tyre treads 😂 I’d love to see Ryan react to FIFO life and also the RFDS. I think those two things are pretty unique to Australia and speaks to the remoteness of our gorgeous country.
They arent required at all for this, if its found they will likely use some form of ppe be that long handled bbq tongs and gloves or a suit which i doubt as breif exposure isnt deadly. The person would just wear a dosimeter and they measure the allowable dose. people who work with radiological products have higher allowable dose rates ie they arent super heros but its expected your years exposure would be slightly higher than the australian normal. For example the amount that he said 2 ms is aprox what i got on a international flight two and from australia 14 hours each way plus a few other connecting ones. No biggie.
the container they were in was broken by the load shifting and they fell out into the truck, all of them were accounted for except for one which they believe fell through a bolt hole in the truck. hindsight say's it should have been in a container inside a container etc and that's a wonderful thing.
Those Radioactive Storage Containers are designed to withstand high impact loads. Something isn't right with the explanation. Also doesn't the operator check his load from time to time?
they found the capsule 2 metres off the great northern highway just south of Newman, and yes, people do live there. The people working on the mines work there
The humour of West Australian comments was outstanding to Dept of emergency services... The dept have been asked to look for a lot of lost sockets... Needle in a haystack. It's just under the size of a 10 cent coin, we've been advised to maintain a 5 metre distance from it🤷 Under the Australian sun....
I used to transport material from xray machines after they were cleaned but it was contained in lead boxes that can't be legal carrying it like that. I had have a dangerous goods licence to carry it .
Your full of crap mate, an xray machine is safe if its turned off, it uses a cathode ray tube that only produces xrays when its actually powered on. Very similar to how old CRT cathode ray tube TVs worked. the old box tvs, i bet you didnt put them in lead boxes. hahaha. Now if you were transporting other radio therapy machines that may have had accompanying xray machines then maybe id believe you. But not everything radioactive needs to be transported in lead. The smoke alarm in most peoples houses is a great example.
Can't deny that the capsule was there because we have high security measures over these types of items. Caesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years. Meaning only half has become inert and non-reactive. There's an investigation under away, trying to work out, how it got out of a secure vessel that was bolted together. Very suspicious circumstances tbh.
I live in the North East of Perth the roads used are very often once outside of Perth for mining and transport of agricultural products. My uncle and aunty live along this route as farmers. But the Perth part of the route is a highway used by 1000s everyday, I'd use it when I'd visit my inlaws , brother or parents. My husband luckily is using the other road to get to work but could of used it that day 😬
The capsule is about the diameter of a nickel. It will decay to the background level in 300 years. The problem is if a vehicle runs over it and it bursts on a tyre or someone in thirty or seventy years time picks it up and puts it in his pocket or glovebox.
Ryan, the near impossible, finding the "needle in the haystack" has been realised. Today Feb 2 the news is that the capsule was found. Located off the road side some 50 km from the Newman mine site. To find that 6mm X 8mm capsule is a miracle....no doubt about that. 😜😜😜😜😁😁😁😁👍👍👍👍👍
This aside, have a look at a youtube of the trains that carry Rio Tinto from the Iron Ore mines to the port of Dampier. The longest trains in the world and there is no driver! The size of just about anything up there in the Pilbara area is just mind-boggling
The search party wouldn't likely spot it to find it , but would locate it using geiger counters by detecting a higher level of radiation as they pass near it.
0.2 is normal - all around us. So x10 times more than normal. Keep 5 metres away from it. Used in mining sites for measuring materials and has a 60 year life. Was to be repaired. Somehow got out of its secure ? container. Searching 1400 km stretch - with drones and specially equipped vehicles. First time I'm aware of anything like this happening in Australia - impeccable safety history, despite uranium industry and research reactor in Sydney. They take it seriously.
@@pamelarutherford4495 as long as it stayed where it fell they had to eventually find it simply by slowly moving along the road with Geiger counters. They would be able to pick up the radiation from a few metres away. The real danger was that it would get caught in some vehicles tyre tread.
This is super suss. The controls you have to have with radioactive materials are up there with working in a biolab with Marburg. It wouldn't just fall out. My money is it hasn't been handled and stored correctly. Cowboys. They are down playing it, too. 1mSv is the dose limit per year when working with radioactive equipment. 2mSv per hour is a lot different to 2mSv per year.
@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi nah, I'm not. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) prescribes an annual dose limit for members of the public of 1,000 μSv. 1000 microsieverts = 1 millisievert
Okay, so they found it Tuesday, but told the public Wednesday. My hubby works for an Australian mining company, on a site close to where it was lost, and consequently found, so they learned of the find straight away. Helicopters were used in the search, with some kind of tracing equipment on board I’d expect. Rio Tinto have earned themselves a terrible reputation of late.
There is communities and towns all along the great northern Highway but yes imagine getting out to stretch your legs and not knowing if you were stepping on it 😅 good thing they found it 🙌 so never pick up anything random off the ground 😅
Apparently a bolt fell out of the truck and the capsule fell through the hole. Why wasn't it in a sealed container. The problem is it is so small that it could be picked up in the tread of a care tyre and driven home without the owner of the car knowing!
The story I saw said that the capsule was inside a gauge within a machine. The machine was being transported inside a sea container, which was loaded onto a transport road train. The unsealed roads from the mines, to the sealed highway are so badly corrugated, that the vibrations caused a bolt in the machine to come loose and fall out of the machine. The hole that the bolt left open allowed the capsule to fall through out of the machine into the floor of the sea container. The sea container was badly rusted having been on the ocean on ships most of its life and the corrugated unsealed road, caused the sea container floor to collapse. The capsule fell though the rusted container floor onto the deck of the transport truck. The deck of the transport truck was apparently decked with hardwood timber boards that shrink in the heat of the desert and gaps open up between the boards. Theory is that the capsule then rolled / vibrated down through one of the gaps in the decking Timbers & through onto the road. That particular few hundred kilometres of unsealed corrugated gravel road is basically fine red dust. The capsule could be buried up to an inch below the road surface and due to the red desert dust, the capsule coated in dust would be indistinguishable from the gravel road pebbles to the naked eye. It’s possible the capsule due to its small size if run over by tyres of the truck itself or other trucks following could have been lodged between tyre treads and carried any distance from where it was lost before becoming dislodged. Really speaking they need to equip vehicles with Geiger counters machines fitted low to the ground and drive the route slowly until one of the detectors goes off. The idea of staff walking 1400 kilometres (800 miles) looking for it by eye is ludicrous and no more than a media appeasement exercise by the mining company spin doctors. Perhaps behind the Geiger counter apparatus they need to run hollow steel bars close to the ground, filled with rare earth magnets in the hope of making the capsule be attracted by and attached to the magnetic bars. Just clean the magnetic steel bars each night of all accumulated ferrous metal debris collected during the days travel. If nothing else imagine how many tyre punctures from old nails, bolts and tek screws would be avoided by all that metallic trash being collected off the road in return for the cost of the search? Perhaps they just fly drones at 6 inches above the road surface ahead of the truck - with Geiger counters suspended under the drone until one goes off? The drones at least could be operated / controlled remotely from within the air conditioned truck cab itself. Save 1400 kilometres of walking.
I live in west Australia. Mine's pop up everywhere...mining companies don't care about anything. It's a very big place the western Australian out back..
Hi mate, howsitgoin ?? Melb is a beautiful 27c the sun is glorious, and all the birds are happy and chirping, that capsule was slot in the middle of woop woop,, can be dangerous to a roo or a lizard. cheers fell and have a bloody good one.
It’s teeny tiny, and has now been found. They said it’s equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack, but I figure it’s more equivalent to finding a needle in a paddock full of haystacks. Yet, they actually found it
This is the same Rio Tino that accidentally on purpose blew up 46,000-year-old historical and culturally important Aboriginal Caves. So I'm not shocked they lost a tictac size radioactive capsule.
This is a little bit of a guess but it’s probably used like when we hired consultants from overseas to take temperature readings on refinery equipment up to 100m away in our refinery south of Sydney after receiving the scope for equipment storage we upgraded the risk immediately. From the news With the Homer Simpson clip of him holding the radioactive material! authorities in Western Australia say they have found a tiny radioactive capsule which went missing last month. Emergency services had "literally found the needle in the haystack", they said. A huge search was triggered when the object was lost while being transported along a 1,400km (870 mile) route across the state.
Hey Rya, they found it, can you believe it. Apparently a truck fitted with a geiger counter picked up the radiation signal It was found close to one of the mines in Newman near the Pilbara WA.
You think we had big animals before haha... image the snakes in WA now haha... I think the capsule is used for ground density testing. I think its used in ground density testing. They use them in mining a lot.
Looks to me like a source capsule for a density gauge. So the radioisotope is most likely Cs-137 half-life 30 years. Density gauges are used widely in mining to measure the %solids in mineral slurries. The big question is how the capsule fell out the source and shielding assembly. When not in use the radioisotope should be locked in the shielded position and unable to be exposed and completely secured in the shield assembly. That means when locked the capsule cannot fall out even in a fire. To me it looks like someone forgot to lock the source in the shielded position even then the source should never fall out.
The capsule has been found, we can all relax, nobody was irradiated and no mutants were spawned. It fell off the truck 120 Km into the journey and was located 2 metres from the road south of Newman. Kudos to all those involved in the search and recovery; now for the financial reckoning.
I appreciate how quickly the searchers found and retrieved it. A job well done.
That is probably the most heartfelt, empathetic thing I've heard a Rio Tinto rep say
Rio Tinto have to say sorry a lot.
If you translate Rio Tinto into Latin
it means WE FUCKED UP.
Hence, the phrase outback "Don't Rio-Tinto the fuck out of it!"
@@jaci_mac23 About what? Be specific.
This is somehow the least horrible thing rio Tinto has done in the last decade lol
Someone needs to tell Rio that saying sorry all the time means we don't believe them 😅
It’s like “The boy that cried wolf”.
@@jencooper3371 exactly!
You keep saying it, it loses all meaning
Someone did tell them but they couldn't hear him...they were at a party after receiving their annual bonuses!
@@Ulbre this is both very funny/sad/and probably true!!
Now that our emus have nuclear weapons the Emu War II is going to be epic!
😂😂😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣😂😏😉
😂😂😂LOL 😂😂😂
Noice
I'm West Aussie - we've been told that a bolt / screw fell out of the container on the truck it was being carried in, and it fell through that hole.
Yes, there are a lot of people who live in Mt Newman, it's an Iron ore mining town, and there are towns dotted all the way down Great Northern Highway.
Very interesting & thank you for the information🙌
The mind boggles, that regardless of the loose screw, something so small & dangerous, would be kept in a container with a hole in it..🤔
*SLAPS FORHEAD!!
@@ralsharp6013 Yeah, well to be honest ( and to be clear I'm NO conspiracy theorist - far from it ), im not sure I believe it to be honest. Just doesn't wash with me, that anyone would be transporting anything so dangerous, in a container with screws in it, that hasn't been double / triple checked to be a safe transporting method....I'm probably very wrong, but my little "nope, doesn't sound right to me" bell is ringing with this one.
@@roslynjonsson2383 we're a little less sucked in by conspiracies, but they definitely happen and can understand your apprehensive thoughts completely. (Concerning the loose screw yarn)..
By the description above, the safe sounds like it was tight as a fishes bum'ole🧐
Hmm, You've defs persuaded me back to thinking,
Perhaps someone's telling Pork-pies!🤔🧐
They found it a couple of days ago. It's the size of a tic tak.
@@cgkennedy Yeah, we know thanks hon. Cheers
Hot off the press, it's been found just outside of Newman.Special vehicles capable of detecting radio activity were driven both to and from Rio Tinto's site travelling at 50 km per hour.
It's Rio Tinto. Never underestimate how much disregard they have for people and the environment. This is the company that destroys indigenous sacred sites without permission or actual mining licences.
Sadly many many more sacred sites, not only in mining, have been destroyed with permission .....not tribal permission though :(
As far as I know, while they prioritise making money over Aboriginal heritage preservation, They typically or always, follow the letter of the law as a minimum which is skewed in mining companies favour
They routinely do a hell of a lot worse to indigenous people in third world and developing countries.
What isnt a sacred site now mate, the other day i was trying to go into a dan murphys and they were forming a tent embassy out front for free vb...
It's the size of a tic tak sweet. Duty of care is not a priority according to Rio Tinto. The damage they did to that Sacred Site beggars belief. Suspect the indigenous people who probably move through the area will not be pleased.
As a west Aussie, this has been hilarious. The memes and the jokes are awesome.
Bell tower times has had a field day
Oops someone didn't tie down the okkie straps...then again this is Australia they probably didn't bother.
Right on mate, have not had a good laugh at Rio's expense for a while.
The Simpson's opening comes to mind. I had not heard about this accidental whoopsy, thanks for telling me what's going on in Aus.
could easily get stuck in the tread of someones tyre, so imagine driving around with that radiating everywhere
Especially if it's a radial tyre 😜
I think it’s intentional
Especially if the casing breaks, that contains the beta waves and will become many time more potent if broken.
if the casing breaks and your driving it will just fly to oieces and most likely disperse into the surrounding enviroment. Once it rains it will wash away into drains and eventually and 1400kms is a long way but eventually just back into the ocean and surrounding earth. A few seconds of exposure isnt likely to do anything. especially if it somehow got lodged into a tyre, the material between you and the tyre ie steel, plastic rubber, glass carpet even your clothes all help to lower the final dose rate. Even the air helps to limit it and it does so by a inverse square law ie distance is your friend.
@@AbiNomac What would be the point of them intentionally doing it?
They had to have been not following procedures. All radioactive sources must be surrounded in lead and secured in a seperate container clearly labeled radioactive when not in active use.
They said some bolts and screws were missing and it may have shaken loose in transit. Which raises a bunch of other questions 🤔
@@Merrid67play They said that a screw shook loose in transit and left a hole for the gauge to escape from, which, on that (part dirt) route, while unfortunate, does indeed seem possible.
Curious how they'll prevent it from happening again
@@S3pra If the roads are that bad they should have removed the source from gauge and transported it in a sealed Pb pot. I thought that is what happened in the old days? Anyhow if the site has no road access or very limited road access the source(s) should be potted in Pb and transported by air out.
i get the happy go lucky attitude in Australia, but when it comes to something like this, I kinda feel maybe the lead & labels legislation should actually be followed! No wonder mining's such a dangerous job if this is their attitude to safety!
Wow those guys with the Geiger counters have a long walk, in full summer (it almost got to 40oC yesterday in Perth). I live in Perth, I do not think I will go north for a while.
G'day Ryan...Radioactive isotopes are extremely common in the mining industry even in the US. They are part of measuring equipment. It was being transported as part of a larger piece of equipment.
And there are very strict policies and laws surrounding they're use. I'm a qualified nuclear density gauge operator and if I just lost a Source one day, I'd be beyond fired, pretty much blacklisted and my employer and myself would face huge fines and possibly jail time. But because it's Rio Tinto they'll get a _slap on the wrist_ which be be more like the government kissing their ring.
If access is bad and roads very rough all isotopes should be removed and sealed in Pb pots then packed into a secure 44 gallon drum(s). Labelled in the correct manner (including source serial numbers) and declared as a radioactive shipment. People have been transporting radioactive sources for decades and there are procedures.
@@_BangDroid_ I certainly would not want to be the RSO (Radiation Safety Officer) on that site! Sounds like things were not done to protocol or procedure.
It never stops. If it's stupid, careless, incompetent or insensitive it's usually Rio Tinto they're a total embarrassment.
That's it Ed 🤡
Yes
It's a piece the size of fine gravel !! Not a few tonnes of it...
@@grahamjeffries1058 which means it's much easier to secure & prevent something like this ever happening doesn't it!
@@mehere8038 easier said than done. When you consider the scale of operations and the 2 mentioned, it's nothing really. Significant yes but what individual or company hasn't made mistakes in their life/history?
Ryan, there's a lot of towns on that route between Newman and Perth. So plenty of people live along there.
It's very sus. It was apparently bolted onto something that was locked in a metal box. The item it was bolted to was still in the box and still on the truck.
The handler thought he was taking a headache pill he mistakenly ate the radio active capsule...hes head aches gone eyes are a bit warm..he changed the flat tyre without a jack...l don't see a problem 😂 😂 😂
😂this has to be my favourite comment
...i'm still going barefoot. Radioactive waste is nothing compared to sun softened bitumen.
Although Australia owns 35% of Rio Tinto, Canada owns 34%, Europe 13%, and 11% by America. No one is owning up to how it was " lost"...
Tbf, they probably don't know at this point. But they won't be announcing it to the general public if they do find out.
A bolt came loose on the truck and it fell through the hole.... that was the report i heard
Yes they did it fell out off a hole in bottom of the container it was carried in
I blame Merica 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I told you not to let the American's do things, I know the only reason the Canadan's didn't do it was, it too hot for the sled dogs. and the European's are still waiting for a train. Shame it had to be moved at the same as happy hour in the pub.
Hi Ryan, they’ve found it. The women walking along had Geiger counters watching for radio activity. Apparently it has just been found near Newman at the start of the journey. Two metres from the side of the road. A hot zone has been established and then it will be put in a lead box and go to Perth.
It's small enough to get caught in the tread of your tyre. It was in a piece of mining equipment. They can detect it up to 20m (60ft) away.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Could literally be anywhere now
Fingers crossed the Geiger counters start going off real soon, or I guess we wait until either people in an area start showing signs of radiation sickness, or noticeable amounts of dead animals start appearing - Just like last time, when I was living in Esperance and birds started literally falling out of the sky. We had flocks of dead birds from one end of town to the other. Some were rare species that will take decades to recover, if they survive at all - It was the head of my department at the local newspaper that sounded the alarm. Picked up dead birds and rushed them up to Murdoch uni, to find out they were all dying from lead poisoning. Scientists came to town, test our water, and all our water tanks were infected, had to be emptied, and all our roofs pressure cleaned. Turned out to be Magellan mining not covering the train carriages of iron ore, containing extreme quantities of lead. My cousin and his 5 kids lived along the rail track, 4 from 5 of his kids have special medical checks every year to keep check on how they're all doing. The mines aren't regulated enough period
It would never happen. its not magic. its like a candle for example. if you touch it it burns ouch... but at 15/30 meters away you can barely even see the candle light. Obviously its a little more powerful than a candle, however a thing called the inverse square law applies with radioactive materialsb meaning the further away you are its like the candle, the weaker the output of particles is. Theres also diferent types of particals some can be blocked by something as thin as a sheet of paper, others need lead, heavy water, concrete and distance. etc etc this is very low down there on the worry about anything becoming of it. I mean if some idiot picks it up and takes it home and puts it in say a necklace or carries it around all day for a weekb they will first start blistering and burning like sunburn then other stuff slowly starts to happen. its not strong enough to instantly kill or instantly give radiation posioning unless you cracked it open
or openwd it and ate the bloody powder....
@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi Mate, it was lost in an area of WA that is covered with birds that are attracted to shiny objects of any description, especially crow's / wedge tailed eagles and our 28 port lincoln parrots, who are all known for collecting shiny things. A crow or Wedgy would have that tiny thing cracked open or swallowed in seconds flat.. I just hope they find it very soon.
Ryan, for the technical explanation, it's about ¼" across and ⅓" high... so roughly pill 💊 sized. Why do they have it? It's used in detection or analysis equipment. Why transport like that? It's transported inside a lined case, but the case was a little banged up and it fell out when the case shifted in transit. So truck arrived, packages had moved, case was found with a hole, and in following the floor, found another hole.... so somewhere in the just over 900 miles it's fallen out.
Case was found with a hole? There are about ten failures in that brief paragraph of theirs.
@@godamid4889 it's my understanding that the case was "solid, if a little scuffed up" when it left. Think of it as an old tool box, still weather tight but a bit janky, but one good thump it's tools everywhere.
@@PiersDJackson that would be highly negligent, still.
@@godamid4889 they assumed that the case with a few scuff marks and scratched paint was just as good as if it were brand new. Like a water bottle, you don't find the hole in the top half, until you fill it all.
@@PiersDJackson yeah, that's not how you handle radioactive substances. You don't find out the bottle had a hole in it until ten years later when you develop pancreatic cancer.
Heard on radio this morning 2nd Feb., the capsule has been found using special equipment invented in Sydney a couple of years ago!
I love that we have to be advised by the media to wear shoes…… 😂😂🤣🤣🤣
I love that you think anyone will actually take their advice & put thongs on lol
Also, did the media actually say it, or did Ryan just make that up as a joke? Pretty sure it was just his joke, cause I can't imagine the media bothering to tell people that when they know they'll be ignored, and also in reality, when they'll be wearing shoes anyway if coming in contact with it, cause it's the middle of summer & we're talking about roads, so third degree burns to be out there without something on feet.
Burns from the radioactive tictac would be nothing compared to the radiation burns from the sun while picking it up!
The capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed, which had been entrusted to a a third-party contractor to safely package and transport to a facility in Perth. Peace out.
That c word again. Contractor. Trouble always seems to follow.
Well someone stuffed-up. In the end any source movement requires sign-off by the local Radiation Safety Officer even if a contractor does the job. The RSO has to check and make sure accidents cannot happen and all is safe, secure and to standard as required by law. Then the contractor must make good on any additional requirements.
A container from a hospital in Brazil containing cesium-137 accidentally ended up at a dump in 1987 and some scavengers found it and sold it because the cesium was a beautiful blue colour. Apparently only a few people got radiation poisoning, and a couple of deaths.
I heard of a similar incident involving dumped medical instrumentation with depleted uranium.
Imagine the effects on the snakes and spiders 🤣😂🤣
Look up the Fallout game series 😂
Yes, just look for all the dead animals.
Mutants 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
She’ll be right, all our Marsupials already glow under fluorescent light, they’ll just add to the mix 😅😂
@@its_Today_ itll make them all easier to see at least!
I can't believe No one noticed the deaf lady's interpretation of when they say 'emitting 2 Siemens ' a few times. I speak Auslan and it's hilarious
Not sure if it's a typo/finger fumble/unfamiliarity with the terminology, but the measurement unit is 'Sievert'. And in this case, we're actually using milliSieverts - (mS). One whole Sievert is A LOT of radiation to be exposed to at one time 😬
I'll be travelling part of that 1000+km route in April, I'll keep my eye out for it.....Looks like I won't need to worry, found after a 6 day search with detection equipment near the start of the 1000+km route.
Ryan, it's always interesting to see just how very often Rio Tinto have to put out apologies to people, but NEVER EVER explain how the thing happened.
I also find it fascinating that you chose an India-based news channel to get your news from Australia.
Cheers from Oz.
"Not knowing what they are dealing with" is the best quote of this all. Same to you bud. Same to you.
Rio Tinto also blew up a sacred Aboriginal site a while back and were criticised for the way they handled it, so they were quick to apologise this time!
The bastards.
Perth to Geraldton is the coast road. Lost capsule is on the Brand Highway which is inland.
And busy with truckers and cars so I reckon it's been caught in tread, flung, and I do wonder how robust the capsule is - could it have broken through impact damage etc?
Brand Highway is the coast road, Great Northern Hwy is the new home of the Capsule.
Brand hwy does head towards geraldton. Finishes south of dongara
Small and shiny? A bird has it already.
Giant, mutated magpies coming soon.
RYAN, Ryan, ryan... If you get time, watch an Australian movie called "The Castle". It contains the line "The only thing dad thought was better than 'Hey, Hey it's Saturday 'is 'The Best of Hey Hey it's Saturday'.
Your intro made me LOL. Thanks for the levity.👍😂
Your right there is no excuse!...but they did say sorry.
Hahaha thank goodness they said sorry
I really want to know how a highly radioactive capsule smaller than a ten-cent piece that would have been packed in the appropriate safety container could go missing out of a transport vehicle?
Australian Spider-Man going to be such a lad 😂
These are used in flow meters in the process of ore when you enter a area in processing. They are in almost every refinery it's used in the mining sector. They are usually barricaded so you can't get close to them
They FOUND IT !! Just south of the township of Newman at 11am Wed 1 Feb
I love your videos keep up the great work champ
The capsule is about 6 X 10 millimetres, so about the size of a small fingernail.
Distance between Perth and Newman is also 1267 KMs, not 1400.
Media screws up everything over here.
1267 in a straight line, roads wind, and truck drivers make pit stops..
exavtly and it probably came from a mining camp 200 ks off the main road as well.
Mines use radioactive material in density gauges. Radioactive Officers are trained to maintain them as required and is highly regulated
We just got back from a road trip on part of that route the day the news broke. Had us checking our tyre treads 😂
I’d love to see Ryan react to FIFO life and also the RFDS. I think those two things are pretty unique to Australia and speaks to the remoteness of our gorgeous country.
The southern end of the search area is only 6km (3.7miles) to my house. I use that road everyday.
Time to buy a radioactive hazmat suit mate lol
@@lillibitjohnson7293 🤣
Another reason I'm rather glad I moved to South West Australia (Albany) back in Nov 22! Been a north of Perth girl all my life until now!
I remember that happened on a mine site I was working on 10 years ago. Not nearly as frightening as walking into a brown snake...
This sounded SO much like an April 1 story
Hazmat suites would also give them heatstroke, outback heats remember. Could go up to 40-50 Celsius
They arent required at all for this, if its found they will likely use some form of ppe be that long handled bbq tongs and gloves or a suit which i doubt as breif exposure isnt deadly. The person would just wear a dosimeter and they measure the allowable dose. people who work with radiological products have higher allowable dose rates ie they arent super heros but its expected your years exposure would be slightly higher than the australian normal. For example the amount that he said 2 ms is aprox what i got on a international flight two and from australia 14 hours each way plus a few other connecting ones. No biggie.
@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshipoint taken thank you for your input.
the container they were in was broken by the load shifting and they fell out into the truck, all of them were accounted for except for one which they believe fell through a bolt hole in the truck.
hindsight say's it should have been in a container inside a container etc and that's a wonderful thing.
Those Radioactive Storage Containers are designed to withstand high impact loads. Something isn't right with the explanation. Also doesn't the operator check his load from time to time?
This isn't a hindsight thing. There is gross negligence here.
they found the capsule 2 metres off the great northern highway just south of Newman, and yes, people do live there. The people working on the mines work there
The humour of West Australian comments was outstanding to Dept of emergency services... The dept have been asked to look for a lot of lost sockets...
Needle in a haystack. It's just under the size of a 10 cent coin, we've been advised to maintain a 5 metre distance from it🤷
Under the Australian sun....
I used to transport material from xray machines after they were cleaned but it was contained in lead boxes that can't be legal carrying it like that. I had have a dangerous goods licence to carry it .
Your full of crap mate, an xray machine is safe if its turned off, it uses a cathode ray tube that only produces xrays when its actually powered on. Very similar to how old CRT cathode ray tube TVs worked. the old box tvs, i bet you didnt put them in lead boxes. hahaha.
Now if you were transporting other radio therapy machines that may have had accompanying xray machines then maybe id believe you. But not everything radioactive needs to be transported in lead. The smoke alarm in most peoples houses is a great example.
I've had a radio active capsule in the kitchen drawer for 10 years, no big deal. Accept my hair fell out at 22 years old, all good!
Can't deny that the capsule was there because we have high security measures over these types of items.
Caesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years. Meaning only half has become inert and non-reactive.
There's an investigation under away, trying to work out, how it got out of a secure vessel that was bolted together.
Very suspicious circumstances tbh.
💯
They said some bolts and screws were missing too.
@@Merrid67play Yeah, I dunno, I call BS on that... one would hope they have these things stored in a secure, airtight container.... :\
@@Merrid67play Yes, there sure is a screw or two loose somewhere
They found the capsule just south of Newman.
I live in the North East of Perth the roads used are very often once outside of Perth for mining and transport of agricultural products. My uncle and aunty live along this route as farmers. But the Perth part of the route is a highway used by 1000s everyday, I'd use it when I'd visit my inlaws , brother or parents. My husband luckily is using the other road to get to work but could of used it that day 😬
The capsule is about the diameter of a nickel. It will decay to the background level in 300 years. The problem is if a vehicle runs over it and it bursts on a tyre or someone in thirty or seventy years time picks it up and puts it in his pocket or glovebox.
Ryan, the near impossible, finding the "needle in the haystack" has been realised.
Today Feb 2 the news is that the capsule was found. Located off the road side some 50 km from the Newman mine site.
To find that 6mm X 8mm capsule is a miracle....no doubt about that.
😜😜😜😜😁😁😁😁👍👍👍👍👍
Capsule found this morning by specialist vehicle.
They found it!!!
Was the size of a pea lost in an area the size of the UK!!!
As they say, it's easier to ask for forgiveness, than it is to ask for permission lol
Ryan you need to see Northern Western Australia, The Kimberley Region and Pilbara.
This aside, have a look at a youtube of the trains that carry Rio Tinto from the Iron Ore mines to the port of Dampier. The longest trains in the world and there is no driver! The size of just about anything up there in the Pilbara area is just mind-boggling
The search party wouldn't likely spot it to find it , but would locate it using geiger counters by detecting a higher level of radiation as they pass near it.
It has been found 2 metres off the great northern highway in Newman this afternoon.
0.2 is normal - all around us. So x10 times more than normal.
Keep 5 metres away from it.
Used in mining sites for measuring materials and has a 60 year life.
Was to be repaired.
Somehow got out of its secure ? container.
Searching 1400 km stretch - with drones and specially equipped vehicles. First time I'm aware of anything like this happening in Australia - impeccable safety history, despite uranium industry and research reactor in Sydney. They take it seriously.
We can't even find PEOPLE in the outback let alone that f&+*ing thing
THEY FOUND IT! It was found this morning just south of the town of Newman.
The proverbial needle in a haystack. Didn’t expect this outcome, well done to the searchers.
@@pamelarutherford4495 as long as it stayed where it fell they had to eventually find it simply by slowly moving along the road with Geiger counters. They would be able to pick up the radiation from a few metres away. The real danger was that it would get caught in some vehicles tyre tread.
This is super suss. The controls you have to have with radioactive materials are up there with working in a biolab with Marburg.
It wouldn't just fall out. My money is it hasn't been handled and stored correctly. Cowboys.
They are down playing it, too. 1mSv is the dose limit per year when working with radioactive equipment. 2mSv per hour is a lot different to 2mSv per year.
nah your confusing your units of measure mate, go back and re learn.
@@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi nah, I'm not.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) prescribes an annual dose limit for members of the public of 1,000 μSv.
1000 microsieverts = 1 millisievert
My mate lives in Geraldton I will tell him to make a packed lunch and go for a drive and find it 😂
Okay, so they found it Tuesday, but told the public Wednesday. My hubby works for an Australian mining company, on a site close to where it was lost, and consequently found, so they learned of the find straight away. Helicopters were used in the search, with some kind of tracing equipment on board I’d expect. Rio Tinto have earned themselves a terrible reputation of late.
The worry is an Emu might swallow it and mutate becoming the Aussie Godzilla.
Great. We're needed an Aussie mutant, goannazillla!!!
Or emu, they're crazy enough as it is
Did you know that Spideman was born in WA in 2023?
Bet he’s a red back
There is communities and towns all along the great northern Highway but yes imagine getting out to stretch your legs and not knowing if you were stepping on it 😅 good thing they found it 🙌 so never pick up anything random off the ground 😅
The Belltower Times did a great satire on the lost pellet. Pure gold, check it out
Apparently a bolt fell out of the truck and the capsule fell through the hole. Why wasn't it in a sealed container. The problem is it is so small that it could be picked up in the tread of a care tyre and driven home without the owner of the car knowing!
I live in WA as well so when my mum was talking about this l was so confused until l saw the news
It's OK... They managed to find it (it's smaller than an Australian 10c piece on a road that is 1,400km long in the outback) yesterday. Its all good.
Good news is they found it. One of the search vehicles was driving and got a beep from their Geiger counter
All I can think is Rick and morty from earth C-137 😂
They found it today!
Thanks
I've witnessed uranium mine employees having yellowcake snowball fights. Calm the fuck down, everyone.
The story I saw said that the capsule was inside a gauge within a machine.
The machine was being transported inside a sea container, which was loaded onto a transport road train.
The unsealed roads from the mines, to the sealed highway are so badly corrugated, that the vibrations caused a bolt in the machine to come loose and fall out of the machine.
The hole that the bolt left open allowed the capsule to fall through out of the machine into the floor of the sea container.
The sea container was badly rusted having been on the ocean on ships most of its life and the corrugated unsealed road, caused the sea container floor to collapse.
The capsule fell though the rusted container floor onto the deck of the transport truck.
The deck of the transport truck was apparently decked with hardwood timber boards that shrink in the heat of the desert and gaps open up between the boards.
Theory is that the capsule then rolled / vibrated down through one of the gaps in the decking Timbers & through onto the road.
That particular few hundred kilometres of unsealed corrugated gravel road is basically fine red dust.
The capsule could be buried up to an inch below the road surface and due to the red desert dust, the capsule coated in dust would be indistinguishable from the gravel road pebbles to the naked eye.
It’s possible the capsule due to its small size if run over by tyres of the truck itself or other trucks following could have been lodged between tyre treads and carried any distance from where it was lost before becoming dislodged.
Really speaking they need to equip vehicles with Geiger counters machines fitted low to the ground and drive the route slowly until one of the detectors goes off.
The idea of staff walking 1400 kilometres (800 miles) looking for it by eye is ludicrous and no more than a media appeasement exercise by the mining company spin doctors.
Perhaps behind the Geiger counter apparatus they need to run hollow steel bars close to the ground, filled with rare earth magnets in the hope of making the capsule be attracted by and attached to the magnetic bars.
Just clean the magnetic steel bars each night of all accumulated ferrous metal debris collected during the days travel.
If nothing else imagine how many tyre punctures from old nails, bolts and tek screws would be avoided by all that metallic trash being collected off the road in return for the cost of the search?
Perhaps they just fly drones at 6 inches above the road surface ahead of the truck - with Geiger counters suspended under the drone until one goes off?
The drones at least could be operated / controlled remotely from within the air conditioned truck cab itself.
Save 1400 kilometres of walking.
I live in west Australia. Mine's pop up everywhere...mining companies don't care about anything. It's a very big place the western Australian out back..
I live in Geraldton, Western Australia and people definitely live all along that route
Hi mate, howsitgoin ?? Melb is a beautiful 27c the sun is glorious, and all the birds are happy and chirping, that capsule was slot in the middle of woop woop,, can be dangerous to a roo or a lizard. cheers fell and have a bloody good one.
It’s teeny tiny, and has now been found. They said it’s equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack, but I figure it’s more equivalent to finding a needle in a paddock full of haystacks. Yet, they actually found it
To be fair, it might have been a "needle in a haystack," but it was emitting a unique signal (gamma rays), making it far easier to find.
Good luck finding it. Cesium has a half life of about 30 years
Gday Ryan - you might be interested in doing a story about Australian quokkas……
This is the same Rio Tino that accidentally on purpose blew up 46,000-year-old historical and culturally important Aboriginal Caves. So I'm not shocked they lost a tictac size radioactive capsule.
This is a little bit of a guess but it’s probably used like when we hired consultants from overseas to take temperature readings on refinery equipment up to 100m away in our refinery south of Sydney after receiving the scope for equipment storage we upgraded the risk immediately.
From the news
With the Homer Simpson clip of him holding the radioactive material!
authorities in Western Australia say they have found a tiny radioactive capsule which went missing last month.
Emergency services had "literally found the needle in the haystack", they said.
A huge search was triggered when the object was lost while being transported along a 1,400km (870 mile) route across the state.
Hey Rya, they found it, can you believe it. Apparently a truck fitted with a geiger counter picked up the radiation signal It was found close to one of the mines in Newman near the Pilbara WA.
You think we had big animals before haha... image the snakes in WA now haha...
I think the capsule is used for ground density testing. I think its used in ground density testing. They use them in mining a lot.
They said it was in a radiation detection gauge, ironically
Looks to me like a source capsule for a density gauge. So the radioisotope is most likely Cs-137 half-life 30 years. Density gauges are used widely in mining to measure the %solids in mineral slurries. The big question is how the capsule fell out the source and shielding assembly. When not in use the radioisotope should be locked in the shielded position and unable to be exposed and completely secured in the shield assembly. That means when locked the capsule cannot fall out even in a fire. To me it looks like someone forgot to lock the source in the shielded position even then the source should never fall out.