When intact, the device is not dangerous. However, if the radioactive material inside is accessed, it can be very harmful.
of Houston a device containing radioactive material is missing in Texas, USA.
American of the NBC news channel according to it is a radiographic camera that works like a portable x-ray machine. It is used to find hidden structures in, for example, the construction and oil industries.
There is radioactive material inside the camera, but according to Texas health officials, it should not pose a danger to bystanders, and radiation levels outside the camera will not rise unless the protective shell is broken.
However, if the protective cover breaks, the device is quite dangerous.
“If someone were to get access to the part of the capsule where the radioactive material is, it would be very harmful, you could lose fingers,” said a spokesman for the health authority Lara Anton.
Device belongs to a company called Statewide Maintenance Company.
It disappeared from a van outside a lunch restaurant on Thursday. The device has been searched for within a radius of five miles, or about eight kilometers, from the restaurant without success.
According to Anton, there have also been inquiries about pawnshops.
The device weighs almost 25 kilograms. It is therefore a significantly larger device than recently in Australia, where the mining company Rio Tinto lost a tiny radioactive capsule along a 1,400 kilometer long road. The capsule was found after weeks of searching.
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