What is going on with all this radioactive shrimp?(www.consumerreports.org)
43 pointsby riffraff2 days ago7 comments
  • burnt-resistor2 days ago
    Protectionist regimes and opaque supply chains that aim to maximize profits above all else aren't motivated to provide honest answers, only a least-damaging public relations narrative.
  • ggm2 days ago
    Half life tracking presumably would give a "birthday" for the cesium-137 source. Given they suspect scrap contamination in a recycling smelter, its at best informing to root cause. That, and the length of the tail yet to come as it passes down the ladder.
    • addaon2 days ago
      “Half life tracking” isn’t really a thing — decay is a memory-less process (by definition), so there’s no distinction in decay rate between a lot of old Cesium 137, and a bit of young Cesium 137. The way to put an age on the contamination is by looking at the ratio of Cesium 137 and Barium 137, which presumedly someone has done…
      • ggm2 days ago
        Thank you for clarifying. My intent was where you get to, badly understood and expressed.
  • 2 days ago
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  • zarzavat2 days ago
    See also: Prachin Buri radiation incident. It's unclear what, if any, link there is between the two incidents.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prachin_Buri_radiation_inciden...

    https://qz.com/thailand-radioactive-cylinder-found-foundry-1...

  • comrade12342 days ago
    > “easiest explanation” is that a medical or industrial device containing cesium-137 was inadvertently reprocessed as scrap metal. The radioactive material could have become gaseous after entering the PMT furnace and then been released from the facility’s smokestack
    • pixl972 days ago
      Which is highly concerning in itself. A ban on any steel imports from that country should happen immediately and strict requirements on preprocess detection and post process radiation levels should be put in place.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez_cobalt-60_c...

      Is the classic example of what happens when you don't do rad checking at the foundry. You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.

      • amy_petrika day ago
        You can end up with a highly radiated piece that ends up right beside someone for half their life giving them cancer the entire time.

        Well now that's the glass half empty point of view, from the glass half full vantage point, I'm no scientist but my understanding of science if you get bit by a radioactive species, those traits a nuclearly transferred upon your person as superpowers. So what I'm thinking the upside is all the peoples who eat these shrimps will also develop superpowers as the new superhero - SHRIMP-MAN:

            "Looks like you've gone from the big fish... to the tiny, tiny shrimp!"


    "Don't worry, my justice is always freshly boiled and ready!"


    "That's a negative, I'm not a side dish! I am the main event!"
  • nobodyandproud2 days ago
    Great, transparent investigation by the Indonesian authorities.
  • metalman2 days ago
    $1200.00 reward for finding the missing cesium, and a $3500 fine if they can prove the people who lost it, lost it, go Thialand government, it's not clear what the cesium was bieng used for in.a coal plant, perhaps as an x ray source, for welds, and metal integrity, but in any case there is a strict chain of comand for who has resonsibility for ANY "source"(xray), bad mojo and they are pretending that a source can be opened and handled and clearly lost and spread around, without people suffering extream consiquences imediatly

    buddys who have done industrial xray, another who was an "xray welder", weld, xray guys set up, everybody vacates 150', weld, exray guys set up, repeat 733 times and you have a bridge, or whatever

    this shit is very very dangerous, and impossible to survive at close range without getting hurt, fast

    something is very very wrong in Thailand, and there is most deffinitly a clumsy cover up

    assholes.

    • pixl972 days ago
      Also very worrying they don't have detection at the recycling input stream. You'd think everyone would have learned from the Mexico event.