Thai authorities searching missing radioactive cylinder taken frm coal power plant

Thai authorities are scrambling to find a cylinder containing dangerous radioactive material that went missing from a power station, warning of serious health risks from direct exposure.
Key points:

• A 25-kilogram metal tube containing Caesium-137 was reported missing from a power station in Thailand on Friday
• Radiation tests at the plant show it has been taken off the premises
• Thai authorities are calling on the public to help find it, and are warning people not to open the tube due to potential health risks

Staff at the coal-fired plant in Prachinburi province, about 160 kilometres east of Bangkok, noticed the steel tube, 30 centimetres long and 13 centimetres wide, was missing during routine checks on Friday.
A weekend search failed to locate the 25-kilogram tube containing highly radioactive isotope Caesium-137, said Kittiphan Chitpentham of the National Power Supply Public Company, which owns the plant.
The company believes it may have fallen from a wall mount, about 18 metres high, days earlier.
Radiation tests at the plant show it has been taken off the premises.
"We are asking people in the area to help find it," Prachinburi governor Narong Nakornjinda said.

"The radioactive material was in a closed and protected condition, but if someone opens it and is exposed to the substance, it could cause a rash and burns."

The missing cylinder is part of a device used to measure steam pressure at the plant. Officials have not said how much Caesium-137 is inside it.
The Bangkok Post, an English-language daily newspaper in the Thai capital, posted two photos that reportedly show the cylinder before it disappeared.
The Office of Atoms for Peace — the Thai government agency responsible for nuclear research — said the plant was using surveillance footage to try to identify who took the cylinder, and warned against opening it.
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The front casing of the metal tube containing Caesium-137.(Bangkok Post)"If someone breaks the cylinder, when you are directly exposed to it, you could be exposed to a high risk of cancer and serious illness, so please don't break the cylinder," said Office of Atoms for Peace secretary Permsuk Sutchaphiwat.

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Officials from Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) and Prachin Buri provincial administration are trying to recover an unspecified amount of Caesium-137 radioactive material, which went missing from a steam power plant in Prachin Buri Province on February 23rd.


The dangerous material is contained in a steel tube, about five inches in diameter and 12 inches long, and anyone who encounters it are advised to stay away and immediately alert the authorities.


Prachin Buri Governor Ronnarong Nakornjinda and OAP Secretary-General Permsuk Sutchaphiwat went to the power plant to investigate. The governor expressed concern that the dangerous material might have been stolen or improperly disposed of, which will be harmful to people who come into close contact with it.


Cesium-137 is a radioactive isotope formed as one of the more common products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, according to Wikipedia.


An expert in the disposal of radioactive materials, Sumetha Wichienpet, said that Caesium-137 was used in checking for invisible cracks in pipelines in the power plant, adding that the radiation emitted from Cesium-137 into the environment does not exceed 7 Rem but, in nature, the amount of radiation should not exceed 1 Rem.


The radiation is invisible, has no odour and those who are exposed to it will suffer necrosis on the part of the body which was in contact with the material and, over the following days, their natural immunity will be reduced and their hair will start to fall out.

Frantic search for radioactive material missing from power plant in Prachin Buri | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

The scrap metal yards should be checked ASAP. Remember when this happened? Samut Prakan radiation accident - Wikipedia

Search for missing Caesium-137 intensifies, public health officials on standby

Local officials and those from Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace have launched searches for a canister of radioactive Caesium-137, which has gone missing from a steam power plant in Si Maha Phot district of Prachin Buri.


Meanwhile, a 50,000 baht reward has been offered by National Power Plant 5A Company, which operates the power plant, for information which leads to the recovery of the radioactive material, contained in a steel tube, about two inches in diameter and 8 inches long and weighing about 25kg.


A representative of the company said that they discovered that the radioactive material was missing during the routine check on March 10th and has filed a complaint with Si Maha Phot district police.


Officials, equipped with radiation detectors, searched a number of scrap shops in Si Maha Phot district today (Wednesday) but, so far, they have not found any trace of the Caesium-137. There are 26 scrap shops in the district.


Dr. Opart Karnkawinpong, permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry, said today that he has instructed the Emergency Health Division to be on standby, to prepare a list of radiation experts and to coordinate with Ramathibodi and Nopparat Rajathanee hospitals in case people become exposed to radiation and require treatment.


He said that brief exposure to the radioactive material will not have much effect on health, but prolonged exposure is harmful to the body.

Search for missing Caesium-137 intensifies, public health officials on standby | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Search for missing caesium-137 widens as police visit over 20 scrap shops

Police in Prachin Buri has questioned the owners of more than 20 scrap dealerships in the province. None of them claimed to have seen the steel tube containing radioactive caesium-137. Meanwhile, the provincial administration has sought help from neighbouring provinces in the search for dangerous material.


Pol Maj-Gen Vinai Nutcha, the commander of Prachin Buri provincial police, said today (Thursday) that police have checked footage from the surveillance cameras installed outside the power plant, to see if any trucks entered the compound to collect scrap steel, adding that police will question employees of the plant to find out if any of them collected the missing tube.


Prachin Governor Ronnarong Nakornjinda has asked local officials, such as village and sub-district heads in all districts, to tell residents to alert authorities if they came across any steel tube matching the description of the one which has gone missing and to stay away for it.


Cooperation has also been sought from officials in neighbouring provinces.


Employing a drone and radiation detectors, officials from the Office of Atoms for Peace searched a scrap yard in Phanom Sarakham district of Chachoengsao today, which occasionally buys scrap steel from the power plant, but they did not find any trace of radioactive material.


The caesium-137 is believed to have gone missing from the power plant on February 23rd, but officials at the plant only discovered its disappearance during a routine check on March 10th.

Search for missing caesium-137 widens as police visit over 20 scrap shops | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Caesium-137 already melted, 70 people tested for radiation exposure

About 70 employees at a foundry in the Kabin Buri industrial park and some people living near the plant will be tested by health officials after it was discovered that the missing ceasium-137 has already been melted, along with other metallic scrap at the facility, Prachin Buri Governor Narong Nakornjinda told a news conference this morning (Monday).


He has also ordered the plant closed and declared off-limits to unauthorised personnel after officials detected radiation at the foundry, one of two searched yesterday by officials from the Office of Atoms for Peace.


The governor said that, after several checks, officials were confident that the radiation they detected at the site came from the caesium-137 contained in a steel cylinder, which went missing from a steam power plant in Si Maha Phot district. Caesium-137 does not exist naturally.


The officials were told that the cylinder and its radioactive content had already been melted in the furnace with other metal scraps. Residues of the cylinder and its contents, after the melting process, will remain within the closed melting system.


Therefore, a decision was taken to order the plant closed and declared off-limits, said the governor adding, however, that no radiation has been detected in areas about ten metres from a large bag in which traces of caesium-137 were detected.


Permsuk Sutchaphiwat, secretary-general of the Office of Atoms for Peace, explained that ceasium-127, when heated to a temperature exceeding 600 degrees Celsius, will turn to soot, but some residue can still be found in the furnace.


Police, meanwhile, said that all the people who are responsible for the safe keeping of the caesium-137 will be questioned to discover how one of the canisters went missing from the power plant.


Dr. Surin Suebsueng, the provincial health chief, said that he has ordered a check of treatment records at all hospitals in the province for the past month, to find out if any patients presented with conditions which could have been caused by radiation exposure.


No cases have been found to date, he added.

Caesium-137 already melted, 70 people tested for radiation exposure | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Why is a radioactive cylinder in a coal plant?

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Originally Posted by TTraveler

Why is a radioactive cylinder in a coal plant?

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It is used in some kind of measuring equipment. Something to do with the flow inside pipes? Someone here probably knows exactly what.

Can you imagine the sheer horror of these fuckwits ever being allowed to commission a nuclear reactor within Thailand.

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Originally Posted by Shutree

It is used in some kind of measuring equipment. Something to do with the flow inside pipes?

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ok - for this application as it does not look like a pipe because of the flat face I am not sure - it may have been some method of looking at moisture content - though the only moisture content devices I have used have been microwave TX and recieve - moistscan is the australian company from Mackay that exports them across the world.

the majority of measurement with raadioactive sources is for density - the round rusty cylinder that is in the photo is the source container which is lead lined and has an opening at the front with a shutter , operated by that piece at the other end near the information plate.

the radio active "pill" of cesium lives in the source holder and the alpha , beta and gammas are allowed to escape through the aperture when it is operating and the shutter is open - on the other side you have a scintillation tube which sends the gammas to the sensor to be counted - alphas and betas are stopped easily - you skin stops them - but gammas pass though - so to do a calibration you close the shutter - do a background radiation standard , then open the shutter and fill the pipe with water and do a zero of Specific gravity 1 ( water is 1 kg/litre ) and the number of gamma particles is recorded as counts per second - and then you run the slurry through the pipe and take a sample of the slurry and measure the density on a marcy scale and let the lab boy take a sample back to the lab to do a dry SG and you punch that SG into the density transmitter which as now you have 2 points the electronics has a 2 point slope of counts per density to compare going forward.

radiation can also be used to measure level in vessels where the inside of them is very unfriendly and anything exposed to that environment will disappear , and recently I have come across an application of using it for weighing on a conveyor belt .

20 years ago all your beers would have passed though a level checking device as the bottles ran down the production line - but as I have not been to a beer brewery as a tech for that long I cannot confirm if that is still the case.

apart fro the state of the source enclosure - there are a litany of other processes that obviously do not work at this plant - as from my explanation of the way this works - if the source had just fallen off , then the counts would have gone to zero which would have made the device read 100% and should have triggered all sorts of alarms in the control room - especially if the loop was on automatic.

control of radiation sources is taken very seriously in all the countries I have worked in.

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Originally Posted by baldrick

control of radiation sources is taken very seriously in all the countries I have worked in.

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and rightly so , I did some radon monitoring as a physics student, and attended numerous IAEA and Harwell conferences on ionising radiation but not these monitors so thank Baldrick for his effort to explain and Misskit for the news updates .I'd guess the person most at risk is the thief who did not realize the hazard but the container sold for scrap was probably not opened?

I sincerely hope Thailand goes for wind solar or biomass as alternates to fossil fuel, if they must go nuclear a coastal location where effluent will hardly be noticed, somewhere awash in scum on the Eastern Seaboard somewhere? I imagine the boss won't want it near restless muslims , Phuket nor Hua Hin.

Seeking Agamma may be a new sock in that case.

Radiation experts checking Kabin Buri foundry

Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) has temporarily stationed a team of experts at the foundry in Kabin Buri district of Prachin Buri province, where a metallic cylinder containing caesium-137 had been melted down.


Kitkawin Aramrun, head of the nuclear and radiation emergency operation centre of the OAP, said today (Tuesday) that the experts will conduct radiation checks at the foundry and in its surrounding areas and will plot their readings on a map.


He maintains that, so far, radiation has not been detected outside the compound of the foundry but, more importantly, the experts will carefully check for radiation and will confine the radiation within the compound.


Yesterday, in neighbouring Rayong, the provincial administration ordered about 12.4 tonnes of metallic dust, being kept at a recycling plant, to be sent back to the foundry in Prachin Buri within three days.


The metallic dust is a by-product of the melting of iron scraps at the foundry in Kabin Buri district, which is believed to have melted down the caesium-137 canister, which had disappeared from the steam driven National Power Plant 3 A in Si Maha Phot district.


Kitkawin offered an assurance to members of the public in Rayong and Prachin Buri provinces that radiation from caesium-137 has not leaked out of the foundry.


He also said that OAP officials will contain the large bags containing the metallic dust properly.


Radiation experts checking Kabin Buri foundry | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

30 students at a school near Kabin Buri’s foundry fall ill

About 30 students at a school within three kilometres of the foundry where a metallic cylinder, containing caesium-137, is thought to have been melted down, have fallen sick, most of them have with a high fever, cough and runny nose, as the radiation scare intensifies.


The provincial administrative organisation has ordered officials concerned to assess the condition of the sick students and to report immediately to doctors at Kabin Buri district hospital if any of them develop serious symptoms.


Teachers at the school in Hat Nang Kaeo sub-district have reported that some of the students have missed classes because they have high fevers.


They said that, initially, doctors have prescribed medicine according to their symptoms.


Songkhram Sisawat, chief of the voluntary health group in Kabin Buri district, said that most of the sick students developed respiratory conditions.


Prachin Buri Governor Ronnarong Nakornjinda said today (Friday) that health officials have checked the conditions of 76 employees at the foundry and did not find any of them who had been exposed to radiation from caesium-137. He also offered an assurance to people in the province that their farm products are safe and free from radiation.


The Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology has randomly checked 120 samples of vegetables, fruit and fish in the province and have not found any of them contaminated with radiation.


Anucha Burapachaisri, the government spokesman, said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed the police to investigate how the caesium-137 had disappeared from the steam power plant in Si Maha Phot district and to make sure that such an incident will not be repeated.

30 students at a school near Kabin Buri's foundry fall ill | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Sick students at school near Kabin Buri district foundry free of radiation

None of the 30 students who fell ill at a secondary school, located only 3km from a foundry where caesium-137 radiation was detected, have been affected by radiation or COVID-19, according to findings by public health officials in Thailand’s Prachin Buri province.


The students suffered from symptoms related to a respiratory disease, said Dr. Suthep Petmark, the inspector of 6th Regional Health Office, today (Saturday).


Public health officials were sent to Ban Kok Krathon School in Lat Takhian sub-district after the students started to develop high fevers and runny noses, with and some suffering from pink eyes and rashes. The officials treated them in accordance with their symptoms and conducted blood tests on 13 of them.


Dr. Suthep said that the blood tests did not show that any of them were exposed to radiation, nor they were afflicted with COVID-19 adding, however, that officials continue to investigate the cause of respiratory disease.


He also said that people living near the foundry who have doubts, or who are concerned that they may have been exposed to the radiation, can visit their nearest health office for a consultation or they can call the Disease Control Department’s 1422 hotline for advice.


Symptoms associated with radiation exposure include loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and possibly even seizures and coma. People who receive a high radiation dose may also suffer from skin damage.

Sick students at school near Kabin Buri district foundry free of radiation | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

Food, soil and water in Prachin Buri uncontaminated – Health Department

More than 20 samples of fruit, vegetables, water, soil and food, collected from markets within a 5km radius of the foundry in Prachin Buri where caesium-137 radiation has been detected, have been cleared of radiation contamination by the National Institute of Nuclear Technology.


Dr. Sarawut Boonsook, deputy director-general of Health Department, said today (Thursday) that the institute used gamma spectrometry to check the level of radioisotope Cs137 in the samples and did not find any radiation.


He asked members of the public in Prachin Buri to trust health officials, assuring them that the foodstuff, soil and water in the province are free from caesium-137 radiation.


He also said, however, that anyone who develops fatigue, nausea, vomiting, red eyes or a skin infection should see a doctor at the nearest hospital or clinic.


A small steel cylinder, containing caesium-137, went missing from a steam power plant in Si Maha Phot district of Prachin Buri and is believed to have been melted down at a foundry in Kabin Buri, after radiation was detected there. The recycled metal is believed to have been sent to Rayong province.

Food, soil and water in Prachin Buri uncontaminated – Health Department | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world