September 17, 2012 - RTT News - Lost In Transit: Halliburton's Radioactive Device Goes Missing - A cylinder containing potentially dangerous radioactive material went missing last week somewhere in rural part of West Texas when it was being transported from a well outside of Pecos to another well south of Odessa by oil field services company Halliburton Co. (HAL:Quote). The Texas Department of State Health Services, which is looking for the missing device, cautions anyone who sees it stay at least 25 feet away and notify local law enforcement. The sealed stainless steel cylinder, which is about 7 inches long and an inch wide, contains radioactive isotope Americium-241/Beryllium, and is used to evaluate oil and gas wells, and is usually stored in a protective shielding. The cylinder is stamped with the words "danger radioactive" and "do not handle" along with a radiation warning symbol. Though not considered highly radioactive, the device could expose someone who comes in close contact with it for an extended period of time to a harmful dose of radiation, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement.
September 17, 2012 - Las Cruces News - Radioactive gunk draws attention at checkpoint - One recent Wednesday, just as we were affirming, yes, we are American citizens, the alarm device in the border patrolman's hands started flashing like a slot machine gone berserk. We were invited to pull over and chat. I darted a furious look at Roberta. Her lightning-quick knitting needles produce baby blankets (don't ask) at a prodigious rate. They might as well spell T E R R O R I S T in the air. She wields these things as deftly as a skilled butcher dissects a side of beef. You don't want to mess with Roberta when she is brandishing those weapons. It was just a matter of time before they got us in trouble. "Have you maybe just come from a medical facility?" the guard guy asked. Whoops. That's right. The folks at Cardiologist Boulware's office had warned me the radioactive gunk introduced to my body had the potential to shut down El Paso International. If my pacemaker short circuited I could take out Cleveland. There was talk of entering me into the All American Futurity. For the technical minded, I was full of Tc99m Tetrofosmin. You inject Tc99m into the patient's bloodstream and then watch it circulate through the veins. Think of giving a kid a glass of fluorescent lime juice and watch him suck it through a transparent, roller coaster Sippy straw. The precise medical explanation is even more complex