Mexico finds radioactive load from stolen truck

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Mexican authorities on Friday found a load of dangerous radioactive material that was in a stolen pick-up, a top civil protection official said.

The load of iridium 192 was found abandoned on a street a few miles from where the truck was stolen in the industrial Mexico City suburb of Tlalnepantla, Luis Felipe Puente, the head of the country’s civil protection agency, said on Twitter.

Military troops mounted a security perimeter around the small container emblazoned with logos for hazardous materials until it was removed from the site by the country’s nuclear safety commission, according to media reports.

The material, normally used in industrial radiography, was housed in a specialized container and would only pose a health risk if the housing was tampered with, Mexico’s interior ministry said in a statement.

The truck, which belongs to a metalworking company, had been stolen on Thursday.

In December, thieves in Mexico made off with a truck containing dangerous radioactive medical material – Cobalt-60 – that the United Nations’ nuclear agency said could provide an ingredient for a “dirty bomb”, in which conventional explosives disperse radiation from a radioactive source.

That radioactive load was also found dumped by the thieves close to where it was stolen.