InfrastructureCannister containing iridium 192 stolen in Japan

A radioactive substance that can be used to make a dirty bomb has
been stolen in Japan, police and officials
said Tuesday, warning the public not to go near it. A sealed metal container
holding a small amount of iridium 192 was stolen on Monday from the office near
Tokyo of a company that inspects industrial
products, police said. Iridium 192 is commonly used in cancer radiation
treatment but it is also cited in scenarios by antiterrorism investigators as
an ingredient for a makeshift nuclear bomb. Police said they did not know the
motive of whoever stole the substance from the office of Non-Destructive
Inspection Co. in the Tokyo suburb of Ichihara. A security camera at
the warehouse caught a person wearing a baseball cap and work tunic carrying
away the 22 kilogram (48.4 pound) container, the company and police said.
“We are examining the tape and looking for the person,” a police
spokesman said.

The science ministry issued a warning with a picture of the
container, warning the public it was dangerous if opened. “Anyone who
finds it, please don’t get near it. Report it to a nearby police station,”
the ministry said on its Web site. The container held a two millimeter (0.08
inch) tall cylindrical bit of iridium 192. If taken out of the container, the
stolen iridium 192 can give off 50 millisieverts of radiation an hour at a
distance of one meter (3.3 feet), the limit for occupational radiation exposure
for one year, the company said. A normal person would start feeling sick,
“just like when you have a hangover,” if standing one meter in front
of the opened container for five hours, said Toshio Kariya, a storage
management official at the company. Radiation could be fatal if a person is
exposed to 7,000-8,000 millisieverts for a short period of time.

Non-Destructive Inspection, based in the western city of Osaka, uses devices such as
iridium 192 to check for damages and defects in products without destroying
 them.

-read more about non-destructive
inspection (the technology, not the company, see here