Fronteras

The theft of a vehicle containing a radioactive capsule in Mexico has left the world wondering about the public's risk to such substances. The fact is, radioactive substances are regularly transported worldwide, including within the United States and across its borders.

In the Southwest there are three main disposal sites for low-level radioactive waste, like the kind generated by hospitals for cancer therapy. This kind of waste can include things like syringes, gloves and hospital gowns.

The three disposal sites are located in the states of Washington, Utah and Texas. According to data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the United States generates between 1 and 5 million cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste per year.

This material can be transported via truck, rail or air. Both the NRC and the Texas Department of Transportation regulate the transportation of radioactive material.

At United States ports of entry, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has installed radiation monitors meant to detect undeclared radioactive materials. These yellow cylindrical monitors sometimes hang like door frames around the entrance lanes where vehicles cross into the country. Their goal is to prevent potentially harmful materials, such as a dirty bomb, from entering the United States.

An incident of radioactive contamination that caused an international scare happened along the West Texas border beginning in 1983. According to an article in the New York Times an electrician unknowingly picked up a capsule containing radioactive pellets from a hospital warehouse and took it to a junkyard. Before he dumped it, he opened the capsule and spilled dozens of pellets onto his truck bed. Hundreds more ended up in scrap metal in the junkyard.  That scrap metal was later used to make tables and steel rods that were exported to the United States. In total, the Times reports, 600 tons of contaminated steel was shipped to the United States.

The contaminated material was discovered by accident, when a delivery truck accidentally drove into Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and set off a radiation alarm.

George Moore, a resident scientist at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in Monterrey who spent five years at the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in the latest radiation scare this week, Mexico acted in accordance to protocol.

"The fact that they reported this so rapidly and got the international attention is indicative that they've got a pretty good security system which responded rapidly for this particular event," he said. 

Six people were admitted to a hospital in central Mexico on Friday showing signs of radiation sickness.