Goiania’s radiation accident – down the memory lane

In 1987, a scrap yard in Goiânia suffered one of the worst accident involving a radioactive source. Two families live and work at the scrap yard in the Brazilian city. Plastic and metal scrap collected off the streets is sorted out for recycling. Scrap merchants sold a metal canister left at an abandoned medical clinic. It looked harmless but valuable. They had no idea that it contained a powerful radioactive source used to treat cancer. The equipment was opened and the glittering radioactive Caesium chloride powder was shown to the friends and relatives of the junk-yard owner. Small fractions of the powder were gifted as souvenirs.

Thus, unknowingly, the contamination became wide spread over two weeks period. 250 people were contaminated. Four died in the first month. The management of the accident generated 3000 cubic meters of radioactive waste, which was disposed off in near surface repositories on the outskirts of the city.

The incident brought global changes in radiation safety. Lessons drawn from the accident are still helping to shape actions on radiation safety and security decades later. Before the accident, the regulations were weak when it came to controlling radiation used in medicine and industry worldwide. There was no awareness that radioactive sources must be controlled from ´cradle to grave´, and to prevent the public accessing them. Since the accident, the gradual replacement of sealed sources containing the soluble, powdery form of cesium chloride has been considered. The task is not easy. The IAEA has been developing rigorous safety standards for dealing with orphaned sources of this kind in the metal recycling industry. .