Cf 252 loss in Japanese hospital

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

Just found the following below - lost Cf-252 (only first part given here) 
via the Asahi Shimbu site (Japan). It seems like a modest loss (?) but may 
not necessarily be perceived as such.
I was actually searching for more information relating to the Tokaimura 
event but it seems like other types of news now make the head lines in 
Japan.

Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com
-----------------------------------------
Hospital loses radioactive material
Asahi Shimbun

Radioactive material used in the treatment of cancer has been reported 
missing from a government-run medical center in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, 
officials of the Science and Technology Agency said Monday.

The International Medical Center of Japan discovered late in October that 
the material, californium 252, stored in a small, narrow tube, had been 
substituted with another substance.

The missing californium 252 is estimated to discharge 4 million Becquerels 
of radiation. A person within one meter of the material for nine days would 
be subject to radiation equivalent to a year of maximum allowable radiation 
exposure, the officials said.


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