News

Six containers with cesium-137 seized in Ukraine

Publish date: February 10, 2005

Each container weighs 83kg and can contain 30 gram of cesium-137.

The police forces found six metal containers marked with radiation signs under a hay cock in the house in Ishun village of Krasnoperekopsk region in Crimea Autonomous republic, Ukraine, Kontext-Media reported in the end of January.


The radiation exceeded the normal level in 300 times, so 16 inhabitants of three houses were temporarily evacuated. All of them had no idea that they had lived beside strong radiation source during 5 months. The police discovered that a man living in the house stole containers at his work. The specialists of Radon Company came from Odessa to decommission the containers.


Cesium-137 is widely used in industry for scanning ground or underground rivers, but it can be used in a dirty bomb as well. The half-life of cesium-137 is 30 years.