CARACAS - Thieves in Venezuela have stolen equipment containing radioactive material used in the oil industry, in the latest in a string of similar incidents, officials said on Wednesday.
Angel Diaz, head of the energy ministry's nuclear affairs department, warned the Cesium-137 material could cause contamination if exposed. The equipment, used in oil prospecting, was stolen last week in eastern Anzoategui State.
"If you take this material out, it could cause contamination," Diaz told reporters.
Authorities arrested three police officers in December after they were linked to the robbery of a truck carrying a device containing Iridium-192, used to check oil pipelines.
Two other capsules with Iridium-192 went missing in March through negligence in two separate incidents. Both of those capsules have since been found, one dumped in Lake Maracaibo in the west of the country.
In neighboring Brazil in 1987, scrap-metal scavengers took a container with Cesium-137 from an abandoned radiation-therapy clinic.
Children smeared the material on their faces and bodies because it glowed after the container was opened. Four people died and about 250 suffered from radiation contamination.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
