UNDT September 25, 2012 - Strategy Page - Finding The Rod Of Death In The Texas Desert - U.S. Army reserve (National Guard) units in Texas have been mobilized to use their radiation detection equipment to find a missing (since September 11th) piece of radioactive natural gas drilling equipment. The item in question is a 177mm (7 inch) long rod containing radioactive elements (americium-241/beryllium). This stuff is not highly radioactive, just enough to be useful in finding natural gas deposits underground. If someone stayed in close proximity (within 7 meters/21 feet) to the unshielded rod for several hours they would begin to suffer some radiation poisoning. The rod went missing somewhere along a 200 kilometers stretch of desert highway in southwest Texas and the oil drilling company crews sent to find the rod failed to detect it. The military grade radiation detectors used by the National Guard should be able to find it, unless someone picked it up and moved it far away from the highway. The rod is clearly marked as radioactive and dangerous.
September 25, 2012 - Waste Recycling News - Radioactive material found at Pa. landfill - A shipping container was discovered to contain radioactive material and has been quarantined at an eastern Pennsylvania landfill. The landfill, operated by IESI Corp., a subsidiary of Progressive Waste Solutions, is located in the Lehigh Valley, a metropolitan region including counties in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. It is not permitted to accept radioactive material, Lehigh Valley newspaper The Morning Call reported. The material was reportedly found during routine scanning of trucks entering the landfill. Local councilwoman Priscilla de Leon said the material had a measurable level of radioactivity, but did not reach a dangerous threshold, according to the article. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is working to find a permanent disposal site for the material, the article indicates.