Answer:
The contamination originated in Goiania is a capsule containing cesium chloride - a salt obtained from the 137 isotope of element cesium. The radioactive capsule was part of a Radiotherapeutic equipment, and within this, was coated with a protective case of steel and lead. This enclosure also contained a window made of iridium, which allowed the passage of radiation to the outside.
The box containing the radioactive capsule was, in turn, contained in a container that had a rotating collimator. This served to direct the beam radioactive as well as to control its intensity.
No one could know with certainty the number of the radioactive source, but it is thought that it was produced around 1970, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States of America. The radioactive material contained in the capsule totaled 0.093 kg and its radioactivity was at the time of the accident, 50.9 Terabecquerels (TBq) Ci or 1375 [1]
The radiotherapy equipment in question was the ESCAP model F-3000. It was designed in the 1950s, the Italian company Barazetti and Co., and marketed by the Italian company Generay SpA
The contamination began on September 13, 1987, when a device used in radiotherapy facilities of a hospital was found abandoned in the central part of Goiania.
It was in the junkyard of the Devair cesium capsule was opened for the recycling of lead. The junkyard owner exposed to the atmosphere 19.26 g of cesium chloride-137 (CsCl), a salt much like table salt (NaCl), but which glows blue when in a place devoid of light. Devair was delighted with the dust that emit a blue glow in the dark. He showed the discovery to his wife Maria Gabriela, and distributed it to family and friends. Because this salt is hygroscopic, ie, absorb moisture from the air, it readily adheres to clothes, skin and utensils, and can contaminate food and the body internally. Devair went through a decontamination treatment at the Hospital Marcílio Days in Rio de Janeiro, and died seven years later