Australian authorities have found and secured a radioactive capsule missing in the outback of Western Australia (WA) after a frantic one-week hunt.
The capsule, which is filled with Caesium-147 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour, was located two meters off the Great Northern Highway near Newman on Wednesday morning local time.
“I do want to emphasize this is an extraordinary result,” WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “The search crews have quite literally found the needle in the haystack.” A crew from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services found the silver-colored capsule using radiation survey meters to detect the gamma rays and radiation levels to locate the capsule….