Thai health authorities have ordered monitoring of Prachinburi province residents after a radioactive cylinder was found crushed at a smelting plant.
The facility has been sealed off since yesterday after traces of radioactive Cesium-137 led a search team to discover the missing device. The cylinder had been missing since late last month from a power plant that only reported its absence one week ago.
The episode has sparked fears of a repeat of a similar incident in 2000 when scrappers cut open a device packed with Cobalt-60 just southeast of Bangkok. Ultimately three people died and 10 suffered serious radiation sickness.
Officials in Prachinburi were conducting blood tests on roughly 70 workers at the scrap yard and steel melting plant, which was ordered to halt operations and will be sealed off until further notice.
Despite public fears of radiation…
