Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Hopefully It's Just A Dishonest Mistake

Fox News: Truck carrying radioactive material stolen in Mexico

A cargo truck hauling extremely dangerous radioactive material from used medical equipment was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities sent out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican officials said Wednesday.

The truck was carrying a metal container of cobalt-60 headed to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards. Though the container is heavily sealed in lead, designed to be difficult to break and to survive accidents intact, he said it contains an amount of radioactive material that could do serious damage if opened.

One would think they would provide more security on such a shipment than a sleepy driver, but that's all they had protecting the cargo.

Apparently, it is the largest amount of cobalt-60 stolen in Mexico in quite some time. Radioactive material has been stolen before by thieves in Mexico who mistakenly thought it was valuable rather than for nefarious purposes.

Hopefully this is no different, and not a part of a terrorist's dirty bomb plot. If not, this could get ugly, especially as our southern border is rather porous to say the least.

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