Police and emergency hazardous material workers were searching late Monday for a box like this one provided by the Fort Worth Fire Department.
Posted on 12/04/2007 3:26:24 PM PST by VRWCmember
FORT WORTH -- A box containing depleted uranium that fell from a truck yesterday has been found. Police and emergency hazardous material workers searched an area of northwest Fort Worth overnight for the device that is used to X-ray construction welds.
A driver with a company identified as Desert Industrial X-Ray was transporting the device through the area of Blue Mound Road and U.S. 287 just before 11 p.m. when the box apparently bounced out of the back of his pickup, police said.
Lt. Kent Worley, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said this morning that a man found the device on a roadway and took it to his house near Meacham Airport in north Fort Worth.
The man's wife saw news reports this morning about the device and call 911, Worley said.
Worley said that the box was recovered by a fire department HazMat team, which determined that its casing was intact.
"No radiation leak occurred," Worley said. "We figured as long as it wasn't breached, it was fine.
"We were just trying to find it, but apparently this guy found it early on and he took it home."
Police and emergency hazardous material workers were searching late Monday for a box like this one provided by the Fort Worth Fire Department.
If it’s depleted, what’s the problem?................
Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Does this story smell like fish to anyone besides me?
I just posts ‘em as I sees ‘em.
It really does!
Whatever you do, don’t cross the streams.
I think it’s not being used as an X-Ray source. The article states that it is used in the welds.
This guy was a home x-ray hobbyist. See he put the uranium under his pillow, then put the on the other side of his head. He checks to see if the aliens have inserted brain probes.
Helen Thomas’ cosmetic case?
Maybe it fell off a turnip truck?
ping
They do use a radioactive source for taking x rays of welds. But not depleted uranium. The sources for metallurgical x rays are mighty strong. You wouldn’t want to be exposed to the beam.
The person who took this device home took an enormous risk. This is a ‘camera’, a radiography source. It is a stainless steel container filled with depleted Uranium (DU).
The DU, while somewhat naturally radioactive, is actually the shielding for the extremely radioactive source that is stored inside. Most commonly, the source consists of up to 100 curies of Iridium-192.
The dose rates on contact with this source, while not immediately dangerous to life, are more than high enough to cause grave physical damage and illness in a very short period of time.
There are numerous incidents on record of these sources not being stored properly in the camera or actually becoming detached and loose.
Thankfully, this source seems to have remained inside the shield and the shield case intact.
For example...SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR -- In February 1989, an accident took place at an industrial irradiation facility near San Salvador where medical products are sterilized by irradiation from a cobalt-60 source. The accident happened when the source rack became stuck in the irradiation position. The operator bypassed safety systems and entered the radiation room with two other workers to free the source rack manually. They were exposed to high radiation doses and developed acute radiation syndrome. The legs and feet of two of the three men were so seriously injured that amputation was required. The most-exposed worker died just over six months after the accident.
"But what's in the box???"
Agreed.
On the other hand, I’m not sure why it’s news. Depleted uranium is not particularly dangerous.
Everything radioactive smells like tuna.
"A very sad unchristian thing just happened. A sweet old lady's car was stolen. It's a Chevy Malibu. Brothers and sisters. Please, if you've seen this car, just call this toll free number."
There is a metal X-ray at work. A console. You have to increase the cathode voltage by thousands of volts for greater penetration and position for clarity on the monitor to take the picture. The source looks like those big heavy Klystron microwave sources Varian used to make. DC voltage excites the radiac material. There is an anode voltage that focuses the gamma rays electromagnetically. Same principle as a TV CRT.
And a reciever that serves as a camera for the monitor image. I should read the service manual to find out the construction of that part.
I don't know about steel, but aluminum dip brazed aircraft parts need 9-10KV cathode volts to see what's wrong inside of them with this model.
Oh! Good one!
Whadda ya got in the trunk?
How does this depleted uranium just fall out of a pick up truck...? I bet that thing weighs more than just a simple pound or two.
GMTA
“Depleted” ... that should have been the first clue ... depleted uranium is not radioactive ... it’s depleted .... it has the density of lead and harder than anything .... it’s used for armor piercing .....
Well, lots of stuff has similar marking, and uses radioactive material, some of which you probably have in several locations in your house.
I'm a little confused, the story I heard on the local (Dallas-Ft. Worth) radio station, WBAP, said it was Iridium, not depleted uranium. And to my way of thinking, that makes more sense, since DU is less radioactive than natural uranium. I also found this Argonne National Lab document (pdf file) indicating that Iridium 192 (Iridium has 15 radioactive isotopes) "is used industrially as a radiotracer in the oil industry and in gamma radiography to identify flaws in metal castings and welded joints."
It's most likely iridium 192, as reported on WBAP (Rush's Dallas Ft-Worth station). It's used to *inspect* the welds.
how does something like this just fall off the back of a truck? sounds strange to me
Depleted uranium is absolutely radioactive. It is not fissile, meaning you can't create a critical mass of depleted uranium, but it is radioactive.
Not quite right. “Depleted” refers to the fact that the U-238 has been removed, leaving mostly U-235. This IS radioactive. But, being denser than lead, it makes a Great shield for high activity gamma sources.
Maybe, the same way people fall off turnip trucks?
yea thats it I should of thought of that HaHa
Completely depleted Uranium is by heat in those reactors. Who knows? It's most likely Cesium 137 from what I know. The AF uses Cesium 137 sources that are calibrated by NBS for specific gamma ray intensity by distance annually. That's what is used to accurately calibrate dosimeters and radiac meters. I did that once.
And easier to machine and characterize for what serves as cathodes in tubes for those machines. There are 3 voltages that must be tuned for each one: cathode, anode and heater. Provided by the manufacturer. Just like klystron tubes.
LOL
I believe you have that backwards.
I’d hook it up to my X-Box and see what happens.
As the driver was getting ready to pick it up, he was heard saying “Here, hold muh beer!” and seen handing it off to a bystander.
It happens when you drive over the curbs too fast.
It depends. If you noticed the label on the case, the I.D. of the contents was scratched off. I know plutonium throws off alpha particles. Those can be washed off your skin. There are problems when ingested. Beta ones also from various metals. Remember that Ukrainian politician that got poisoned?
The guy that picked up that case needs to be monitored in a hospital. If he made any food with dirty hands, he might need iodine and a blood transfusion.
I keep one of these in my toilet tank.
It stays very very clean.
these oil/gas field service guys just heave their
stuff onto a flatbed truck and drive hell-bent
down to Ft Worth or up to Azle/Springtown/Decatur in
Wise/Jack/Parker Co etc, tool boxes a-bouncing and
a-cutting through traffic oftimes a part of the junk collection falls onto the roadway.
they all look sound and act like Toby Keith in the
Ford Pickemup truck commercials.
jes kidding Toby..
There is no Pu in that case. Those are shipping labels (Probably a Radioactive Yellow III) and list only the major isotopes. Depleted Uranium decays by gamma and alpha.
Alpha particles (effectively a He nucleus) are stopped short by a short barrier of air, clothing, even dead skin, and are only a hazard if inhaled or ingested (Pay heed Smokers!!!) They are Very damaging to tissue. But the case sheilds the alpha. The gamma from the DU is not. The DU is used to shield the Ir-192 source.
It is ‘non-sensical’ to say that alpha particles can be washed off. They are stopped and by capturing electrons, turn to Helium. It is the Pu or Ur that can be washed off.
Iodine is only required if exposed to radioactive isotyopes of Iodine. The idea is to fill the Thyroid with ‘clean’ iodine so it will not absorb the radioactive type.
Blood transfusions are only required in severe exposures that compromise the blood producing parts of the long bones.
Remember, this device is used, and used Safely at many facilities in a year by trained personnel. The fact that it fell from a truck doesn’t make it malignant or 0evil. It is what it is. As long as the source stayed within the ‘camera’, all is well to people involved.
That may be true, it is late and beer is involved :^)
Transpoting these items is governed by many regulations. The driver was obviously neglegent in securing the cargo. It really is that simple.
Probably dropping it on your foot.
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