Mexican authorities have recovered dangerous radioactive material from a cancer-treating medical device that was on a stolen truck and abandoned in a field, the interior ministry said.
It was in a capsule of two centimeters in diameter and authorities are now trying to isolate it safely before taking it to its original destination at a waste storage facility, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
A family that handled the device is being monitored for health risks.
Soldiers had set up a 500-meter (yard) safety perimeter around the hazardous material after it was found 70 kilometers north of Mexico City on Wednesday, two days after the truck transporting it was stolen.
The radioactive cobalt-60 source, which is considered "extremely dangerous" by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, was originally inside a device that was in a steel-reinforced box in the truck.
The material was found in the town of Hueypoxtla about one kilometer from the truck, which the driver said was stolen by two gunmen at a service station on Monday.
The theft raised concerns about health risks while experts warned that the quantity of cobalt-60 -- 60 grams -- was enough to build a crude "dirty bomb," though it was possible the thieves were only after the truck.
The United States said its national security team had monitored the situation "very closely" and that President Barack Obama was briefed throughout the day on Wednesday as the search was on for the missing material.
"We also took appropriate precautionary steps along our shared border with Mexico," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
The National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) said a family found the open medical device and brought it inside their home.
