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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-1...site=illawarra
Workers sick amid highway radiation scare
Updated April 18, 2012 13:54:54
Pacific Highway construction site where suspected nuclear material was uncovered:
Roads and Maritime Services has set up an exclusion zone around the site.
Road workers were sent for medical treatment after vomiting when suspected nuclear material was unearthed during work on an upgrade to the Pacific Highway in New South Wales.
The materials were buried near Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie, after a truck carrying radioactive elements including caesium and americium crashed in 1980.
The isotopes were being taken from Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to Brisbane from where it was to be shipped to the United States.
[snip]
John Mackay, a doctor who treated police who became ill at the crash site in 1980, says he is convinced they suffered radiation poisoning.
Dr Mackay says the officers handled radioactive mater that was onboard the truck.
"The police were instructed by Lucas Heights to approach the radioactive containers, of which there were several, but in particular the caesium-137 containers and put their arms inside of it to check if the inside radioisotope had been broken," he said.
"Within seconds or minutes the men felt intensely sick."
Updated April 18, 2012 13:54:54
Pacific Highway construction site where suspected nuclear material was uncovered:
Roads and Maritime Services has set up an exclusion zone around the site.
Road workers were sent for medical treatment after vomiting when suspected nuclear material was unearthed during work on an upgrade to the Pacific Highway in New South Wales.
The materials were buried near Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie, after a truck carrying radioactive elements including caesium and americium crashed in 1980.
The isotopes were being taken from Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to Brisbane from where it was to be shipped to the United States.
[snip]
John Mackay, a doctor who treated police who became ill at the crash site in 1980, says he is convinced they suffered radiation poisoning.
Dr Mackay says the officers handled radioactive mater that was onboard the truck.
"The police were instructed by Lucas Heights to approach the radioactive containers, of which there were several, but in particular the caesium-137 containers and put their arms inside of it to check if the inside radioisotope had been broken," he said.
"Within seconds or minutes the men felt intensely sick."
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