The National Nuclear Security Administration recovered a high-activity radioactive source from an oncology clinic in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and transported it to the United States, the agency said late last week. The U.S.-origin cobalt-60 source was transported in a special cask to an unnamed facility in the United States where it will be prepared for final disposition, the agency said. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mexico’s National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards and Mexico’s Radiofisica e Industria helped support the mission to recover the radioactive source. “This operation is part of NNSA’s broad strategy to strengthen both U.S. and global security by keeping dangerous nuclear and radiological material safe and secure,” NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington said in a statement. “This mission is a good example of our long-standing partnership with Mexico to prevent proliferation and secure the materials that can be used by terrorists in an improvised nuclear device or dirty bomb.”
NNSA RECOVERS RADIOLOGICAL SOURCE FROM MEXICAN BORDER TOWN
NNSA removes high-risk cesium from Vermont
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed all high-risk cesium-137 from Vermont, making it the 15th U.S. state or territory declared free of high-risk quantities of the radioactive material. This follows a July operation in which a team from Idaho National Laboratory removed a self-shielded cesium irradiator from the University of Vermont in Burlington […]