Police in Pucheng, in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, said yesterday that they have detained several people suspected of stealing a canister filled with radioactive cesium-137 from a local power plant.

The power plant reported the theft on February 6. Local police said they found suspected radioactive materials in a steel plant in nearby Fuping County last Saturday.

The steel plant, according to the police, used to buy scrap metal from the power plant.

On the afternoon of the theft, the No. 1 Northwestern Power Construction Co. alerted the police, saying a football-sized canister filled with cesium-137 was missing.

The radioactive material explodes on contact with water and exposure to it can cause blood disease, infertility and birth defects.

After the theft of the cesium, police canvassed a 5-kilometer area around the power plant, focusing on recycling companies, orchards and brick kilns.

"On Saturday, technicians detected a radioactive material when conducting a second test in the steel plant," said a local official.

The suspects are alleged to have stolen the radioactive material and sold it to a recycling vendor, who later passed it to the steel plant, police said.

The cesium had already been smelted in the steel plant by the time it was detected, so authorities have taken precautionary measures around the plant.

(eastday.com February 17, 2004)