Radioactive source lost and found in Australia
Discussion
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-6448327...
Quotes in the article:
a "victory for science"
"It's a regulatory failure, but I think the way they found it is really cool."
We were talking about this at work as very much an 'oops' before they found it - but good to see that the technology can do its thing....
Authorities said search crews had "quite literally found the needle in the haystack".
Quotes in the article:
a "victory for science"
"It's a regulatory failure, but I think the way they found it is really cool."
We were talking about this at work as very much an 'oops' before they found it - but good to see that the technology can do its thing....
Authorities said search crews had "quite literally found the needle in the haystack".
Simpo Two said:
llewop said:
Authorities said search crews had "quite literally found the needle in the haystack".
No they didn't, they found a radioactive pellet in a desert.What surprised me is how such a thing could have fallen off the lorry in the first place.
That is what was what we were thinking too; suspect it wasn't being secured as it should have been. Could have been a bit of lazy practice assuming 'it's bolted down, will be fine'.... then bounce it along a rough road, something they have probably got away with for years.
Simpo Two said:
llewop said:
Authorities said search crews had "quite literally found the needle in the haystack".
No they didn't, they found a radioactive pellet in a desert.What surprised me is how such a thing could have fallen off the lorry in the first place.
I love the quote from the professor, incredulous they've come to him to comment on the bleedin' obvious
science dude said:
"You know it emits gamma radiation so the obvious thing is to comb the side of the road looking for something with a strong gamma signal... and sure enough that's exactly where they found it."
I’m not stupid enough to argue with an expert.
Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
Sheetmaself said:
I’m not stupid enough to argue with an expert.
Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
Sensitive is probably the most significant of those, although portable/robust starts to contradict that. Then working out how slow you need to be to be confident you'll get some clicks (or whatever - the one currently in my office kind of growls when it starts to detect something). They were lucky it stayed fairly close to the road, could have bounced further off the path and you'd miss it if you were not giving the detector a chance to see it.Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
There was also the possibility that another vehicle might have picked it up in the tyre tread or an animal/bird taken it and then could have gone anywhere.
Finding it - as long as it was near the route taken was never really that hard, Ad had been said, it’s a strong radioactive source over a fairly uniform background.
The worry was that it would be picked up by someone or something and then it would be difficult to trace.
As to how it was lost, from what I gather a bolt fell out of the box it had been secured in and it fell out the hole……..
The worry was that it would be picked up by someone or something and then it would be difficult to trace.
As to how it was lost, from what I gather a bolt fell out of the box it had been secured in and it fell out the hole……..
Bill said:
hidetheelephants said:
Bright gamma source found against non-radioactive backdrop.
They got lucky in the first pass. Presumably after that it would be a case of combing each side at ever decreasing speed.
llewop said:
Then working out how slow you need to be to be confident you'll get some clicks...
I'd have put an identical pellet by a roadside and then done drive-by tests to determine a suitable speed for detection. Maybe they did.It's really a radioactive version of metal-detecting.
I guess they had a few things working in their favour such as only one road, the truck had GPS, the ground is quite hard and devoid of much vegetation etc but on the other hand they managed to detect it over a large area at speed.
It would make a good documentary when the full story is finally known, including how the "escape" happened in the first place.
It would make a good documentary when the full story is finally known, including how the "escape" happened in the first place.
llewop said:
Sheetmaself said:
I’m not stupid enough to argue with an expert.
Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
Sensitive is probably the most significant of those, although portable/robust starts to contradict that. Then working out how slow you need to be to be confident you'll get some clicks (or whatever - the one currently in my office kind of growls when it starts to detect something). They were lucky it stayed fairly close to the road, could have bounced further off the path and you'd miss it if you were not giving the detector a chance to see it.Why wasn’t it as simple as turning on a good/strong/sensitive (delete as appropriate) Geiger counter and driving down the road. If it starts clicking get out and wave it about a bit?
Seems like it’s along the lines of finding a temple in Zelda.
There was also the possibility that another vehicle might have picked it up in the tyre tread or an animal/bird taken it and then could have gone anywhere.
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