El Chernobyl mexicano: 37 years of the nuclear tragedy in Ciudad Juárez by Cobalto 60

Sucedió in 1983, a few months ago the explosion of a reactor at the Ukrainian nuclear plant of Chernobyl, but in the later years the concoction as el “Chernobyl mexicano”, is that entonces were considered the mayor’s accident with radioactive material in Latin America.

The tragedy of its origin in the Centro Médico de Especialidades de Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua, when in 1977 a group of private hospital doctors bought an equipped radiotherapy machine with a Cobalto-60 bomb -, a synthetic radioactive isotope that emits gamma rays used to treat patients with cancer. Six years after the letter was sent to the a maintenance worker of the hospital called Vicente Sotelo and one of his friends called Ricardo Hernández, so that the delivery and sale will take place as a four-year-old.

Due to the lack of capacity, the device can never be used and debits to its dimensions occupying an important space in the hospital, because it is not used because it is a priority deshacerse de él. Per person, 100 kg, the worker does not have to accept what he thought he was win a good amount of money if you sell it at an old iron deposit.

The only way for men to meet the device is to disassemble it during the process. perforate the cobalt bomb shell, which contains 6,000 1 mm diameter diameters of radioactive material, to be aware of the incident that caused the incident Commission on Nuclear Safety and Salvaguardias (CNSNS), entitled “Cobalt-60 Mexico Cobalting Accident 1984”

Once the machine has been dismantled, the pieces will be transferred to a white Datsun van. a deposit box known as Yonke Fénix, giving the payer 1,500 pesos (USD 78 per change of month), was the 6th of December of 1983.

During the hospital bed tray at the iron depot, the van vans goteando the remains of the cobalt, according to the information, but in the deshuesadero it is mixed with the rest of the iron old that is sold to founders, mainly Aceros de Chihuahua SA (Achisa) and the makeup artist Falcón de Juárez SA

The companies that buy the material will use it, starting December 14th, for the construction of varillas of corrugated acre, bases for measures and sills. It is estimated that 6,000 toneladas of material were distributed in accordance with the United States of America and a portion exported to the United States.

Nadie is worried about the incident until January 16, 1984 a truck carrying material to New Mexico detonated the radiation detectors of the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory. The United States issues an alert to Mexico, but there have been 10 days since it was found to have one of the main sources of contamination, the van in which the pieces of equipment were deposited at the depot.

The van was located in the Altavista colony, one of the most impoverished areas of Ciudad Juárez, where it was parked during the week because little people had left the device at the depot where the battery was stolen. As it is known in an open area, ninjas that are played in the calf and persons that pass by the place where they are exposed to the radiation throughout the season. According to the medicines, the pickup truck in some parts casi 1000 rads, the equivalent of the radiation emitting 20,000 radiographs.

The deposit also registers high amounts of radiation, but when it comes to retrieving the material, it has been sold by founders and make-up artists. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 tons of varilla will be recovered, and powder will be used for the manufacture of houses.

When we discover the dimension of disaster, the Mexican magazine Process published that Hotel and its partner were arranged by the director of the hospital, who obliges to sign a document admitting that he has robbed the machine.

As a matter of fact, in secret the number of people who were exposed to the radiation, the type of affections that suffers and the exact amount are known.

Only in the old state of Sonora has 164 contaminated living cases.

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