LAn international police sting at a Pretoria South Afric petrol station has netted four men involved in the sale of a highly radioactive metal suspected to be destined for use in a dirty bomb.
The high-risk operation by the Hawks’ specialised tactical unit was carried out yesterday.
Police recovered some Caesium-137 contained in a protective cover, but admitted they had yet to find a larger device, which was set to be sold on the black market for R45 million.
CCTV footage shows how undercover members of the Hawks’ organised crime unit stormed through a Sasol garage, opening fire on the suspects with semi-automatic weapons, sending terrified customers, motorists and petrol attendants fleeing.
From VOA – South African police say they have arrested four men in the capital, Pretoria, for attempting to sell what they describe as an industrial nuclear device to undercover officers.
The men – all South Africans – were arrested Friday at a Pretoria gas station, where they attempted to sell the device for about $6 million.
Police say Interpol was also involved in the operation. They did not say where the device came from or for what industrial purpose it is used, but did say it contained radioactive material.
The officials say the four will appear in court soon to face charges of possession of a radioactive device, as well as health code violations for handling radioactive material in public.
“…suspected to be destined for use in a dirty bomb.”
Ah, Caesium-137 is almost exclusively produced as a result of fission, is non-fissile, and undergoes beta decay. There is simply no weaponable application for it (that Caesium of any other sort couldn’t support; just drop a vial of the stuff into water). Just look it up on Wikipedia.
Cesarium (or Cesium)-137 is obtainable from many sources in industry and medicine, it is the main source of contaminant radiation around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
There might not be many cancer deaths from a small Cesium-137 dirty bomb, even if the radioactive particles were inhaled. Inhaling is not the main danger, the main danger is the gamma rays. For a van-sized explosion for a Cesium Chloride dirty bomb, a radius of 5km may need evacuating, with all food grown there destroyed and any areas where decontamination is unsatisfactory needing their buildings razed. Areas that cannot be decontaminated would need abandoning, like Chernobyl. Evacuation and cleanup will be expensive, costing maybe hundreds of millions of dollars. Any unruptured steel canisters found should be not touched and the area around them isolated.
Cesium-137 is unstable, water soluble and links into the body as does potassium. Unlike some other poisons, it can be excreted from the body. So I recommend, when in such a contaminated situation, to wash your hands, drink plenty of water and tomato juice, and eat your bananas :).
This is so why we need to tighten our boarders, There is now way of knowing, by race, nationality, or country…could bring something like this across our boarder. Other countries are alot more strick about visas. Terrorists come in all races…Even people with US Passports coming in need to be checked.