William Maddox wrote: Some years ago, an old decomissioned Cobalt-60 radiation therapy machine that had been sold to a Mexican hospital ended up in a lot of scrap metal. The problem was detected when a truckload of "hot" steel rebar set off the radiation detectors when coming *into* one of the weapons labs. It turned out some of the metal had ended up in the cast-iron stands for restaurant tables (McDonald's, I think). I wonder how much of this radiactive metal was never located... --Bill ------------------------------------------- There was an old Nova special about a very similar case except that a lot children were playing with bits and pieces from the machine in the scrap yard. Several came down with radiation poisoning and/or leukemia. By time it was discovered there were dozens of people exposed to it. If I remember correctly, though it was Cesium 137 packaged in nice bright coloured packages, very attractive to children. Most of the material was never recovered. Billy