A tiny however dangerously radioactive capsule which fell off a truck alongside a distant stretch of outback freeway in Australia final month was discovered on Wednesday, authorities stated.

The stable, silver-coloured cylinder is smaller than a human fingernail — simply eight millimetres by six millimetres — however the authorities say it incorporates sufficient Caesium-137 to trigger acute radiation illness.

It was found along side a desert freeway simply south of the city of Newman, Western Australia — close to the desert mine it got here from, the state’s emergency providers commissioner Darren Klemm stated.

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“It is a good end result,” West Australian emergency providers minister Stephen Dawson advised reporters. “It is actually a needle in a haystack that has been discovered, and I feel West Australians can sleep higher tonight.”

Authorities had scoured lots of of kilometres of freeway searching for the tiny capsule.

The six-day hunt got here to an finish after a search car detected radiation whereas travelling alongside the freeway, with authorities now working to securely take away the capsule earlier than taking it to a safe location, Klemm stated.

Crews would then place it in a lead-lined container to defend individuals from its radiation earlier than it’s transported.

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“Within the extraordinarily unlikely circumstance that the capsule leaked, we’ll remediate the realm,” Klemm advised the press convention in Perth.

The capsule disappeared from a truck that drove to the suburbs of Perth from a distant mine operated by Rio Tinto, 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) north of the state capital of Perth — additional than the space from Paris to Madrid.

The gauge which the capsule was part of was initially picked up on January 12 from the Gudai-Darri iron ore mine and delivered to the Perth suburb of Malaga on January 16, Rio Tinto stated beforehand.

However the bundle was not opened till January 25 when the gauge was discovered “damaged aside” with the radioactive capsule lacking. State police have been knowledgeable the identical day.

The sources large earlier apologised, explaining that the radioactive capsule, a part of a gauge used within the mining trade to measure the density of iron ore, was being transported by a licensed contractor when it was misplaced.

Authorities imagine the container it was in collapsed due to the vibrations throughout transportation earlier than it apparently fell by way of the opening left by a lacking bolt.

However an investigation into the incident was ongoing and would decide whether or not penalties would apply to the dealing with of the harmful materials, Western Australia Chief Well being Officer Andrew Robertson stated.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier responded to stories that these accountable for the misplaced pellet might solely face penalties of Aus$1,000 (US$700) underneath present laws.

“One, it should not have been misplaced. That is the very first thing and second — yeah, in fact, that determine’s ridiculously low, however I believe that it is ridiculously low as a result of individuals did not suppose that such an merchandise could be misplaced.”