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Re:Cesium-137 missing and found in junk yard in Thailand by stirlo on Monday March 20, 2023 @04:25PM (#35238125)
The key point being, Yes, it has been smelted.

Initial reports seemed to suggest it was found before it was smelted but that is not the case.

Re:Cesium-137 missing and found in junk yard in Thailand by pixl97 on Monday March 20, 2023 @04:30PM (#35238208)
Well this is telling you to have any metals that have been passed though Thailand ran under a geiger counter. At least in the US any major recyclers perform this operation to prevent radioactive materials showing up in the product stream.
Re:Cesium-137 missing and found in junk yard in Thailand by londons_explore on Monday March 20, 2023 @05:13PM (#35238828)
Industrial smelters are big expensive bits of kit.

Radiation monitors are pretty cheap - at least ones sufficient to identify a Cesium 137 source in a pile of scrap steel.

Radiation in your steel is a hugely costly mistake - at a minimum, you're gonna have to give up all your costly smelting equipment and stock.

Radiation isn't super rare either - major events may be rare, but every few weeks a big smelter will detect small things that ought not be smelted.

So I don't see why any smelter wouldn't have a radiation detector on the input hooked up to warning sirens, for purely financial self interest.

Re:Cesium-137 missing and found in junk yard in Thailand by ISL on Monday March 20, 2023 @05:56PM (#35239343)
It is my understanding that there are radiation detectors at the entrances to recycling furnaces (as well as elsewhere in the US transportation-chain) for just this purpose.