Radioactive Truck Goes Missing In Mexico; Alerts Are Issued

A white Volkswagen truck that was stolen at a gas station in Mexico Monday is no ordinary truck: It's carrying "extremely dangerous" radioactive material, officials say. Authorities are conducting a wide search for the truck, which had been heading to a disposal facility. They're also warning the thieves that they could face serious health problems.

Mexico's nuclear safety group, known as CNSNS, issued a public alert Tuesday, saying that federal, state, and local authorities are looking in at least six states for the Volkswagen Worker truck, which is equipped with a crane and bears the license plate 726-DT-8.

From the BBC:

"The radiotherapy source was being taken from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a waste storage center.

"It was stolen near the capital, Mexico City.

"Mexico's Nuclear Security Commission said that at the time of the theft, the cobalt-60 teletherapy source was 'properly shielded.'"

 

That shielding would seem to come from the equipment itself. In the truck, it was placed in a sealed wooden box that has steel edging.

Mexican officials have informed the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, of the theft.

The U.N. agency says the radioactive source material "could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged."

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