Meet the team behind the search that gripped the world for one tiny radioactive capsule in WA’s outback

A search team tasked with tracking down WA’s most wanted item—a tiny radioactive capsule missing for a week in the WA outback— have shared an insight into what went on behind the scenes, including the call everyone was waiting for. The scientific masterminds behind the recovery mission used a detection device, called the Coris 360, which identifies and locates sources of radiation up to 100m away. The capsule was found at 11am on Wednesday, 2m from the Great Northern Highway, just outside of Newman, a short distance from where its trip had started at a Rio Tinto mine site on January 11. After detectors were triggered from inside a truck driving at around 70km/h, the capsule was located within 5 to 10 minutes. The Australian Defence Force verified the capsule using its serial number before it was safely recovered. DFES station officer Jason Paull said he made sure the scientists were 100 per cent certain it was the source of radiation they were looking for before the team called in the good news. “We waited 20 minutes to make sure, it’s hard to come back down if you’re wrong with something like this,” he said. At 11.13am, DFES district officer Adrian Hamill received the call with the words “We’ve found it”. “And I said ‘Say again’ - and at that point I asked the room to be quiet. And I said ‘Say again, you found it?’ and he said, ‘We found it’.” “The jubilation that came over myself... there were plenty of high-fives in the room.” DFES senior firefighter Dominic Reay was driving the lead vehicle Sydney scientists Prashant Maharaj and Lachlan Chartier were in when detectors triggered. “I’m still not sure whether the noise was from the machines or from those guys! The excitement level went up pretty quick,” he said. The capsule was successfully transported to a WA Health facility in Perth on Thursday night. Retrieving the deadly device was a highly planned operation that involved setting up a mock scenario 100m from where the capsule was and the recovery practiced half a dozen times. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation were involved in the week-long search. The 8mm long capsule containing caesium-137 was being transported inside a radiation gauge from a Rio Tinto mine site in the Pilbara to Perth when it appears to have shaken loose from the tool, dropped through a hole in the box it was being carried inside and then fallen off the back of a truck. Dr Robertson — who is also chair of the WA Radiological Council — has launched an investigation into the preparation and transport of the gauge and said a prosecution would flow if any of the requirements of the relevant act had been breached. Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said on Wednesday: “The search groups have quite literally found the needle in the haystack.”