Uruguay's Ministry of the Interior Saturday issued a nationwide alert for the theft of a tub containing radioactive material. According to the communiqué, 100 millilitres of radioactive iodine (iodine 131) contained in a tub of 3 kg of lead (lead is used as shielding material to prevent the spread of radioactivity) were stolen.
Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan's nuclear safety agency said, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Efforts have resumed at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to restore electrical power and cool its overheated reactors, seriously damaged by the 11 March earthquake.