Pat Dollard

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We taking bets on who the man was going to sell it to? Iridium-192 has accounted for the majority of cases tracked by the US NRC in which radioactive materials have gone “missing” in quantities large enough to make a dirty bomb

CHIBA, Japan, May 8 — Police began questioning an employee of a subcontractor Thursday on suspicion of stealing a container bearing a radioactive substance last month from a company in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, police sources said.

The 40-year-old man has admitted to allegations of taking away iridium 192 in a hermetic stainless steel container kept at Non-Destructive Inspection Co., they said.

The man resembles the one caught by a security camera removing the container at around 1:40 a.m. on April 5, they said.

The substance was 2 millimeters long but those exposed to it could suffer vomiting a day or so later and acute radiation damage within three days, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said earlier.

The company checks damage to products using radioactivity or ultrasound without destroying them.

(AP) (Kyodo)