TIL 4 people died (including a child) and over 200 were seriously injured after two men stole a caesium-137 radiotherapy device from an abandoned hospital and sold it for scrap, hoping to make money.

Wikipedia has an entire list of civilian radiation accidents.

The one that scares me the most happened in Ukraine where a radioactive capsule was accidentally built into an apartment building. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accident

New fear unlocked.
Dude! How come something like that is considered lost and "well, enough searching"!?
I personally find the demon core quite haunting.
- The demon core doesn't really scare me because at least everyone there knew about the potential for harm.

On September 16, Alves punctured the capsule's aperture window with a screwdriver, allowing him to see a deep blue light coming from the tiny opening he had created.[1] He inserted the screwdriver and successfully scooped out some of the glowing substance. Thinking it was perhaps a type of gunpowder, he tried to light it, but the powder would not ignite.

Because, naturally, gunpowder is something you’d expect to find in medical equipment.

It is pretty depressing to find this kind of reply here. If the person was ignorant enough to think that was gunpowder that obviously means they lack knowledge. Some of these people didn't even know what makes something radioactive. Do you really think the guy would give the powder for his 6yo daughter to play if he knew better?
Have some empathy for people less privileged than you.
- You've saved someone who is almost certainly already dead from criticism on the internet. You've done absolutely nothing for no one, but you've put yourself in a position of moral superiority. Well done, I guess.
- You’ll get over it.
  Seriously, there’s not knowing about radiation and not thinking something is dangerous because it didn’t ignite with a flame, and then there’s thinking something salvaged from a hospital might contain gunpowder. These are two completely different levels of ignorance or perceived lack of privilege.
  There’s also spreading cool glowing stuff across the floor of your home without having the first damn clue what it is. That is monumentally dumb.
allowing him to see a deep blue light coming from the *roadside picnic he had created
Ftfy

Plainly Difficult has a lot of videos on similar radiation incidents if you are interested. Here is a video covering a stolen radiotherapy device in Mexico.

Love Plainly Difficult! Def recommend them 🙂

Those deaths were horrific and it is especially said about the 6 year old girl.

Another interesting fact:

Other contamination was also found in or on:
Three buses
42 houses
fourteen cars
five pigs
50,000 rolls of toilet paper

I want details on the 50,000 rolls of toilet paper. I’m not even sure what questions to ask.

Tim Harford just did an episode on this story. Great listen. Great podcast!

https://timharford.com/2023/11/cautionary-tales-the-lethal-fallout-of-a-stolen-treasure/