SYDNEY: Authorities in Australia will review laws that penalise radioactive material with a $1,000 US $707 fine as a result of a search for a hazardous capsule lost in the Outback's seventh day.
Officials from Western Australia's emergency response department, defence authorities, radiation specialists, and others are combing a 1,400 km stretch of highway for the tiny capsule, from a mining device that was lost in transit more than two weeks ago.
The radioactive capsule is part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore feed transported from Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri mine in the state's remote Kimberley region to a facility in the suburbs of Perth - a distance longer than the length of Great Britain.
The penalty for failing to handle radioactive substances is A $1,000 and $50 per day the offense continues, according to state legislation from 1975.
That figure is ridiculously low but I suspect that it's ridiculously low because people didn't think such an item could be lost, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference in the state capital, Perth, about the fine.
The silver capsule, 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm long, contains Caesium 137 which emits radiation equal to 10 X-rays per hour.
Albanese said it shouldn't have been lost.