On Wednesday evening, a nuclear safety official in Mexico said police found a stolen truck transporting the medical isotope cobalt-60.
The radioactive teletherapy material was en route from Tijuana to a waste storage center Monday when thieves made off with the vehicle carrying it, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported. After a two-day search by law enforcement, Mardonio Jimenez of Mexico's National Nuclear Safety Commission was quoted by the New York Times and other outlets as saying the truck and a portion of the material had been recovered, although some of the cobalt-60 was still unaccounted for. Police are canvassing nearby medical facilities, as whoever opened the container holding the material likely received a high dose of radiation.
Teletherapy, also known as external beam radiotherapy, uses gamma rays from cobalt-60 to remove cancers, according to the World Nuclear Association. The technique has been somewhat supplanted by linear accelerators in developed countries.