Missing radioactive capsule found in Australian outback after huge search

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3 years ago

February 1, 2023

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A radioactive capsule that fell off a truck in the Australian outback – sparking a radiation alert and a search of hundreds of miles of road – has been found.

Western Australia’s emergency services minister said the silver capsule, which emits the isotope Caesium-137, had been located about two metres from the roadside.

Authorities were hunting for the 6mm by 8mm capsule and retracing the truck’s 870-mile (1,400km) route with radiation-scanning gear.

The military was checking the capsule and it was due to be taken to a secure facility in Perth.

Minister Stephen Dawson called it an “extraordinary result”.

How was the capsule found?

It took several government agencies six days to find the missing capsule.

The search involved Western Australia’s emergency response department, police, fire and rescue service, along with Australia’s Department of Defence, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, and the Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation.

They retraced the capsule’s 870-mile journey along the Great Northern Highway and other roads in both directions using vehicles fitted with specialist radiation equipment capable of flagging up the isotope Caesium-137 inside.

The vehicles travelled at “slow speeds” and eventually detected the capsule as it drove past it at 43mph.

Niall Monaghan, senior physicist at Radiation Consultancy Services Ltd, tells Sky News it would have been easy to detect with a moving vehicle.

“It’s pretty radioactive, so you would see it pretty easily with a basic detector – even travelling at 40mph.

“Caesium-137 gives off Gamma rays, which penetrate more than X-rays.

“So at that intensity, the capsule would be easily picked up by a detector like a Geiger counter – the ones you see in films that crackle when they find something.

“If you were going really fast you might miss it, but it’s the same as if it was dark and you were looking for something that glows – you would still see it.”

Authorities previously said it would take five days to retrace the route, with minister Stephen Dawson describing the end result as “quite literally finding the needle in the haystack”.

“When you consider the scope of the research area, locating this object was a monumental challenge, the search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack,” he said.

The capsule was found when a vehicle with scanning equipment picked up radiation as it drove past at about 43mph (70kmh).

People had been warned of potential radiation burns, sickness, and damage to their immune and gastrointestinal systems if they came closer than five metres to the capsule.

Driving past was described as much lower risk however, similar to having an X-ray.

It was discovered far from any community and it is unlikely anyone would have been exposed to its radiation, said Western Australia‘s chief health officer Andrew Robertson.

The capsule is owned by mining firm Rio Tinto and is part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore.

Vibrations during transportation are believed to have caused screws and a bolt to come loose from the gauge, allowing it to fall out.

The search area was vast as the truck covered a distance longer than Britain on its journey from the Gudai-Darri mine, in the remote Kimberley region, to the Perth suburbs.

Police, the defence department and Australia’s nuclear agency were all involved after the capsule was reported missing on 25 January.

They had been scouring the state’s Great Northern Highway as well as other sections of the route used by the road train – a truck pulling multiple trailers.

Some 410 miles (660km) had been searched by Tuesday.

Rio Tinto, which gave the capsule to another company to transport, apologised for the “very concerning” incident and said it had launched its own investigation.

Authorities are doing their own probe but under 1975 state laws the fine for mishandling radioactive substances is currently only A$1,000 – and A$50 per day the offence continues.

“That figure is ridiculously low,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“But I suspect that it’s ridiculously low because people didn’t think such an item could be lost.”

Police have looked at bringing potential criminal charges but have concluded there is no case to answer.

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Donald Trump urges NATO countries to stop ‘shocking’ Russian oil purchases to end Ukraine war

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3 hours ago

September 14, 2025

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Donald Trump urges NATO countries to stop 'shocking' Russian oil purchases to end Ukraine war

The war in Ukraine would end if all NATO countries stopped buying oil from Russia, Donald Trump has said.

The US president, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, said the alliance’s commitment to winning the war “has been far less than 100%” and the purchase of Russian oil by some members is “shocking”.

Doing so “greatly weakens your negotiating position and bargaining power, over Russia,” he said.

NATO member Turkey has been the third largest buyer of Russian oil since 2023, after China and India, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, with fellow members Hungary and Slovakia also buying energy supplies from Moscow.

A NATO ban on the practice plus tariffs on China would “also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR”, he added.

The president said NATO members should also put 50% to 100% tariffs on China – and only withdraw them if the conflict ends.

‘China’s grip’ on Russia

“China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia,” Mr Trump posted, and powerful tariffs “will break that grip”.

The US president has already placed a 25% import tax on goods from India over its buying of Russian energy products.

Mr Trump said responsibility for the war fell on his predecessor Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He did not include in that list Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion.

Village changes hands

On the battlefield on Saturday, Russian troops took control of the village of Novomykolaivka in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

A drone attack hit an oil refinery in the city of Ufa, around 870 miles (1,400km) from the border with Ukraine, the local governor said, calling it a terrorist incident.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Friday the 32-nation alliance would place military equipment on the border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to deter potential Russian aggression.

Operation ‘Eastern Sentry’ followed Wednesday’s provocative incursion by multiple Russian drones into the airspace of Poland, another NATO member.

Polish forces shot down the drones, which Moscow said went astray because they were jammed.

Prince Harry’s surprise visit

The Duke of Sussex made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday, promising to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of injured military staff.

Travelling on an overnight train to Kyiv, Prince Harry, who has since left the country, told The Guardian: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.

“We have to keep it [the war] in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”

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At least 32 people killed as Israel intensifies airstrikes in Gaza City, medical staff say

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3 hours ago

September 14, 2025

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At least 32 people killed as Israel intensifies airstrikes in Gaza City, medical staff say

A barrage of airstrikes has killed at least 32 people in Gaza City as Israel continued intensifying its offensive there, medical staff have said.

The dead include 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Health officials said one of the strikes killed a family of 10, including a mother and her three children.

The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed with 14 members of his family.

Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes when contacted by the Associated Press news agency.

Israel has in recent days increased its strikes on Gaza City, having ordered residents to leave what it says is Hamas’s last stronghold.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still in the city, struggling under conditions of famine, which was declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) three weeks ago. Israel previously denied there is a famine in Gaza.

Aid workers say the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, but many families remain stuck due to difficulties with transportation and housing.

Others have been displaced many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the Strip is safe.

In a message shared on social media on Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to “leave immediately” and move south into what it is calling a humanitarian zone.

Sites in southern Gaza, where Israel is telling people to go, are overcrowded, the United Nations has said.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army said more than 250,000 people have left Gaza City – but the UN puts the number at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September.

The UN and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours.

Israel has said it now controls 75% of Gaza, much of which has been reduced to fields of rubble. It has vowed to take the rest.

The current conflict followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and took around 250 people hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

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China warns UK and US after USS Higgins and HMS Richmond sail through Taiwan Strait

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3 hours ago

September 14, 2025

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China warns UK and US after USS Higgins and HMS Richmond sail through Taiwan Strait

China has warned the UK and the US after their warships sailed through the diplomatically-fraught Taiwan Strait.

Chinese naval and air forces were ordered to monitor and warn the two ships, the HMS Richmond and the USS Higgins, as they made their way through the 110-mile (180km) passage between the island and the Chinese mainland on Friday.

The pair were engaged in “trouble-making and provocation”, according to Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command.

“The actions of the United States and Britain send the wrong signals and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” it said in a statement.

The Ministry of Defence said the sailing was a routine passage, adding that wherever the Royal Navy operates, “it does so in full compliance with international law and norms, and exercises freedom of navigation rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

The US Indo-Pacific Command also described the mission as a routine transit, describing the strait as “beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state.

“Navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited,” it said in a statement.

The British vessel, deployed in the East China Sea in 2021, is a Type 34, or Duke Class frigate, and the US ship is an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight II) Aegis guided missile destroyer.

China’s navy said earlier on Friday that its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which is still undergoing sea trials, had passed through the strait as well.

Last week, a Canadian and an Australian warship made the journey along the strategic waterway.

The US and its allies, including Canada, Britain and France, send ships along the strait, which they see as being in international waters, around once a month.

In June, another British warship, the HMS Spey, sailed through the strait to “cause trouble”, in Beijing’s words.

China views Taiwan as its own territory, which Taipei rejects, and claims the strait is part of its territorial waters.

Beijing has increased its military pressure on the island over the last five years, including by staging war games nearby.

Taiwan’s top China policymaker and head of its Mainland Affairs Council, said on Friday China was preparing to invade Taiwan.

Speaking in Washington, Chiu Chui-cheng warned that if Taiwan were to fall it would cause a regional “domino effect” that would threaten US security.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned what he called China’s “destabilising plans” for a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.

Mr Rubio said in a statement on Friday: “Beijing claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is yet another coercive attempt to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbours.”

The shoal lies within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone but has been under Beijing’s control since 2012.

China claims almost all the sea, which is used to transport more than $3 trillion of shipping commerce annually, despite competing claims by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.