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Lost radioactive component found in NW China city

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-27 23:44

XI'AN - A missing radioactive component from a nuclear scale has been melted in a smelter in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, the local government said Friday.

A lead ball, containing Caesium-137, was lost Monday when workers disassembled a 53-year-old production facility at the Shaanxi Qinling Cement Co. in Tongchuan City for failing to meet environmental protection standards, according to the information office of Tongchuan City.

Related readings:  Radioactive device lost in NW China city

Investigators from the provincial environmental protection department suspected that the ball had been mistakenly sold to waste collectors as metal scraps.

They combed the local waste collectors and finally found high radioactivity around a smelter and steel slags at the Xingbao Steel and Iron Co. Ltd in Weinan City on Friday.

The investigators determined that the caesium-137 element had been melted in the No. 6 smelter of the plant.

Wang Xuhui, a researcher with the Xi'an-based Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, said the products of the plant were safe, while most the caesium-137 element had been mixed in the slags.

Technicians are cleaning the contaminated smelter and slags to ensure they would not pose a threat to the environment.

Caesium-137 emits gamma rays to measure the weight of production materials on conveyer belts. It can endanger the nervous system, and cause infertility and even death, Wang said.