The Story of the ‘Mexican Chernobyl’, the Biggest Radiological Disaster with Cobalto-60 that Began in Juárez

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43 years ago, on December 6, 1983, Ciudad Juárez became, without knowing it, the scene of one of the most serious radiological accidents in Mexico’s history. A source of Cobalto-60 was extracted from a private hospital and sold as scrap metal. What seemed like a simple batch of old iron released a chain of pollution that reached thousands of homes and even crossed the border with the United States, thanks to the negligence of a doctor and the ig…