Highly radioactive material stolen in Mexico: dirty bomb danger?

The Mexican government has warned nine states, including its capital, Mexico City, that a truck carrying radioactive material was "violently robbed" in the early hours of Sunday.

According to a statement released by the Secretariat for Security and Protection of Citizens, a Toyota Hilux carrying highly radioactive material was diverted from its route in Teoloyucan, a city located in the state of Mexico. Details of the hijacking have so far been scarce. What has been made public is that a possible criminal gang has hijacked the vehicle carrying Iridium-192.

The Mexican National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguard (CNSNS) reported the incident to the National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC), which posted this notice on social media:

The government has warned anyone who has "direct contact with the source [radioactive material] for hours or days, and its effects can be fatal." They also suggested that "a safety perimeter of 30 meters should also be established around the device in case it is found."

So far, local authorities have yet to express their concern about the likelihood that the dangerous material could fall into the hands of criminal gangs where they could attach it to explosives and produce a dirty bomb.

It is still unclear which criminals obtained the radioactive material and what their intentions might be. It is not even known if they knew about the radioactive material or if they considered it a trivial car theft.

With the location of the radioactive material unknown and the border between Mexico and the United States in crisis, flooded with immigrants, this could pose a major threat to the United States.

Over the years, there have been a handful of car thieves who had stumbled upon radioactive material, one in 2011 when a car thief stole iridium-192 and another in 2013 when car thieves stole it. cobalt-60. The Mexican government has not learned to protect the material and now it could be used to produce a dirty bomb, which can then be transported calmly to the US following the flow of migrants.

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The article Highly radioactive material stolen in Mexico: dirty bomb danger? comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/materiale-altamente-radioattivo-rubato-in-messico-pericolo-bomba-sporca/ on Tue, 13 Apr 2021 07:00:54 +0000.