The executive and the public prosecutor are concerned with an unusual incident involving radioactive material: a 56-year-old man from Styria is suspected of storing radioactive waste (radionuclide cobalt 60) in a garage on an industrial estate between September 2015 and October 2021.
A waste disposal company was commissioned to clear a garage in Seiersberg in the Graz area in the course of an insolvency. The employees came across a total of 26 plastic containers. During the standard inspection of the waste, the employees found contamination in these plastic containers.
The Environmental Crime Investigation Branch found that the plastic garbage cans with the radioactive material came from a company that produces pharmaceutical drugs.
The former manager of this company had brought the 26 plastic bins into the garage. “The radioactive waste material was created during the production of the medicines,” says control inspector Heimo Kohlbacher to the Kleine Zeitung. The waste apparently came from deposits on a cyclotron, a circular accelerator. The machine must have been in operation for around 15 years.
Financial difficulties and the company’s insolvency apparently made the 56-year-old suspect decide to store the barrels in the garage, which is not open to the public.
According to a police spokesman, there is only one company in Austria that disposes of such radioactive waste from medical technology. This is located in Seibersdorf (Lower Austria) near the Austrian nuclear research center.
No danger to humans
The radionuclide cobalt 60 was found in eleven of the disposed of bins. The radiation from the radionuclide was therefore detected up to a meter away from the containers. This should not have caused any harm to people.
Due to the nature of the plastic containers in which the contaminated objects and materials were stored, no liquids escaped either. There was therefore no contamination of land or water.
The 56-year-old suspect is reported.
Source: Nachrichten
