PRACHIN BURI: Local authorities closed a steel melting plant in tambon Hat Nang Kaeo of Kabin Buri district on Sunday after they detected radioactive caesium-137 there.
It registered on a detector while officials from the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) were checking local steel melting plants, looking for a missing tube containing caesium-137, officials said.
The bulky tube of the radioactive isotope was reported on March 10 to be missing from a National Power Plant 5A Company facility in the 304 Industrial Park in tambon Tha Tum of Si Maha Phot district. It is about 13 centimetres in diameter and 20cm in length and weighs 25 kilogrammes.
Local authorities on Sunday withheld the name of the steel melting plant. Prachin Buri governor Narong Nakhonchinda said he would release further details on Monday.
