
A cache of radioactive material that went missing months ago has been found dumped in a town south of Basra, Iraq.
The radioactive material, called iridium-192, went missing from an oil storage facility near Basra in November 2015. Some security experts worried that groups such as the Islamic State had stolen the material for use in a dirty bomb.
The missing material was found by a passerby near the town of Zubair, about 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of Basra, Reuters reported. A source associated with the investigation told Reuters that the material had been isolated close to Zubair soon after it went missing.
"After initial checking I can confirm the device is intact 100 percent and there is absolutely no concern of radiation," the chief of the security panel within Basra provincial council, Jabbar al-Saidi, told Reuters.
It's still not clear who took the material to the town and what they intended, officials say.
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Tia is the managing editor and was previously a senior writer for Live Science. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired.com and other outlets. She holds a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington, a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Tia was part of a team at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that published the Empty Cradles series on preterm births, which won multiple awards, including the 2012 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.
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