PRACHIN BURI: Local authorities closed a steel melting plant in tambon Hat Nang Kaeo of Kabin Buri district on Sunday after they detected caesium-137 there.
The finding by a detector from the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) happened when officials were combing through local steel melting plants in efforts to find a missing tube containing caesium-137, officials said.
The bulky tube of the radioactive isotope was reported on March 10 to be missing from a National Power Plant 5A Company facility in the 304 Industrial Park in tambon Tha Tum of Si Maha Phot district. It was about 13 centimetres in diameter and 20cm in length and weighed 25 kilogrammes.
Local authorities on Sunday withheld the name of the steel melting plant and Prachin Buri governor Narong Nakhonchinda planned to hold a press conference on the matter at the Prachin Buri government complex at 10am on Monday.