[runningdogx]

The capsule could have been from some industrial entity that should have protected the capsule until it was handed off to a recycler (one who knew what they were getting), but didn't (maybe to cut disposal costs, or by accident/laziness). Someone could then have sold the capsule to a Saudi Arabian scrapyard, and they packed it into a container to be melted down in Italy.

Another historical radiation incident caused by failure to protect a radiation source from scrap thieves:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiania_accident

If those thieves in the Goiania incident had just sold the the Cs source to a scrapyard immediately without breaking it open first, the two incidents might have been similar.

[aristus]

There was another incident 25-odd years ago near where I grew up on the US/Mexico border. Radioactive steel (with cesium or cobalt, from medical equipment, IIRC) was sold for scrap and turned into various things like restaurant tables. It was only discovered when a geiger counter was turned on by a bored geologist waiting for food.

[abbasmehdi]

Wow, anything written on the subject?

[lgv]

There's this:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/border/ch09/cobalto.html

[aristus]

Surprisingly it's hard to track down. The Wiki article linked abode has one or two mentions of a "Mexico incident", but that's it. Here are some others:

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/01/science/nuclear-spill-at-j...

[nrser]

best thing about that incident: it all goes terribly wrong when the security guard skips work to watch Herbie Goes Bananas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiania_accident#Theft_of_the_s...