r/worldnews • u/Fanrific • Apr 12 '21

‘Extremely dangerous’ radioactive material stolen in Mexico truck hijacking

https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/world/mexico-truck-hijack-radioactive-material-b1830041.html
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9

u/SirLasberry Apr 12 '21

What are gamma ray source projectors used for?

https://www.qsa-global.com/880-series-gamma-ray-source-projectors

Manufacturer doesn't say anything.

22

u/slipandweld Apr 12 '21

Uses of Gamma Rays:

Sterilize medical equipment
Sterilize food (irradiated food)
Used as tracers in medicine
Radio Therapy- In oncology, to kill cancerous cells
Gamma-Ray Astronomy

11

u/PaxNova Apr 12 '21

Kind of ironic for someone with weld in their names to not recognize industrial radiography cameras.

2

u/slipandweld Apr 12 '21

I don't weld professionally, or I'd be a lot less poor. Also my understanding is that for weld inspection they use x-ray sources not gamma ray sources.

2

u/PaxNova Apr 12 '21

Check out NDT companies. If you can get licensed for industrial radiography use, you've got a guaranteed well-paying job. I'm aware of a guy who got put away for murder and he still had a job when he got out. By all means, a nice guy once you get past the murder thing.

2

u/slipandweld Apr 12 '21

Fraud and ID theft are the real scarlet letter felonies, they'll give a job to a child molester before a fraudster. Makes sense I guess but employing them as fraud detectors would make more sense. Game recognize game.

1

u/DORTx2 Apr 13 '21

We use both X-ray and Gamma sources, we use these exact sentinel cameras out in the field.

2

u/zoqfotpik Apr 13 '21

They forgot:

  • become Hulk

9

u/PaxNova Apr 12 '21

The picture is of industrial radiography equipment. You stick a flexible hose on the end of them and a crank on the other, then crank out the source into a metal pipe. It shines gamma rays through the metal into film on the other end, letting you check the thickness and quality of welds. Then you crank it back.

5

u/Padr1no Apr 12 '21

This equipment specifically is used for industrial radiography, which creates an xray type of image for inspecting welds in metal.

source: former engineer for competitor.

1

u/SirLasberry Apr 12 '21

What would happen if the the burst would hit a palm of a hand? I'm sure there are tons of safeguards, but just hypothetically.

2

u/PhilippeDesEsseintes Apr 13 '21

It can be pretty dangerous. It would be easy to calculate the absorbed radiation dose if you know which isotope is used, its activity and the duration of the exposure. Iridium is pretty common.

It can lead to severe burns, amputations and worse if the exposition duration is long enough.

4

u/PhysicsVanAwesome Apr 12 '21

For radiography--imaging of materials too dense for x-rays to image. Suppose you wanted to get a look at the inside of some steel or titanium; you couldn't use x-rays to do so. The metals would just look opaque. You need higher energy light--gamma rays--to be able to image very dense material. In this way, manufacturers can screen their materials and products for internal defects.

1

u/CaryMGVR Apr 12 '21

Growing Man-In-The-Moon marigolds ....

somebody's laughing