<P> The activity of the source was 74 terabecquerels (TBq) in 1971 . The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) describes the container--51 millimeters (2 inches) in diameter and 48 mm (1.8 inches) long--as an "international standard capsule". The specific activity of the active solid was about 814 TBq kg of caesium - 137 (half life of 30 years). The dose rate at one meter from the source was 4.56 grays per hour (456 rad h). While the serial number of the device was unknown, thus hindering definitive identification, the device was thought to have been made in the United States at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was used as a radiation source for radiation therapy at the Goiânia hospital . </P> <P> The IAEA states that the source contained 50.9 TBq (1,380 Ci) when it was taken and that about 44 TBq (1200 Ci, 87%) of contamination had been recovered during the cleanup operation . This means that 7 TBq (190 Ci) remained in the environment; it should have decayed to about 3.5 TBq (95 Ci) by 2016 . </P> <P> The Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia (IGR), a private radiotherapy institute in Goiânia, was just 1 km (0.6 mi) northwest of Praça Cívica, the administrative center of the city . It moved to its new premises in 1985, leaving behind a caesium - 137 - based teletherapy unit that had been purchased in 1977 . The fate of the abandoned site was disputed in court between IGR and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, then owner of the premises . On September 11, 1986, the Court of Goiás stated it had knowledge of the abandoned radioactive material in the building . </P> <P> Four months before the theft, on May 4, 1987, Saura Taniguti, then director of Ipasgo, the institute of insurance for civil servants, used police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR, Carlos Figueiredo Bezerril, from removing the objects that were left behind . Figueiredo then warned the president of Ipasgo, Lício Teixeira Borges, that he should take responsibility "for what would happen with the caesium bomb". </P>

What occurred in the aftermath of the goiania accident