UK Radiation Incident

Blunder left trail of lethal radiation
By Andrew Norfolk
Safety cap left off toxic cargo as it travelled 130 miles across Britain

A LETHAL beam of radiation was emitted from a casket containing highly radioactive waste on a three-and-a-half-hour road journey across England, it was disclosed yesterday.

Thousands of people were put at risk by the “cavalier” attitude of workers for the privatised company in charge of transporting the hospital waste.

Anyone standing one yard from the beam and in its direct path would have felt sick within ten minutes. After two hours they would have been dead.

Only by “pure chance” was no one directly exposed to the high concentration of cobalt-60 gamma rays that streamed from the container because of the failure to install a lead safety plug.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2046104,00.html