Truck drives over tool on Kansas highway, prompting search for radioactive pellet
Authorities in western Kansas say there doesn’t appear to be any threat to the public after a device containing a radioactive element was run over and broken on a Barton County highway Tuesday morning.
The device was being used by a subcontractor working for the Kansas Department of Transportation to test the density of newly laid asphalt. A truck tractor and trailer ran over it as it was sitting on Kansas Highway 156 east of Great Bend, according to a news release from the Barton County Sheriff’s Office. Several cars also hit it.
As a result, a radioactive pellet in the device went missing, the release says. Authorities think it became lodged in one of the vehicles.
The Sheriff’s Office was notified about the “potential radiation incident” around the U.S. Highway 56 and K-156 junction at about 8:15 a.m.
Authorities used a Geiger counter (yes, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office has one) to test the parts of the device that were still at the scene “and determined there was very low-level radiation ... as would be expected,” the release says.
Meanwhile, members of the Sheriff’s Office, the Great Bend Fire Department and Hazmat Response Inc. searched for the missing pellet.
Eventually, it was found about a half mile from where it was driven over, the release says. The search took about an hour.
Luckily, it was still intact.
The pellet “was checked with a Geiger counter to make sure that the radioactive source inside had not been exposed” then it was returned to the subcontractor for disposal, Sheriff’s Office said in the release.
“It appears there was no threat to the public.”
