Original version

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Witness History: Brazil's Nuclear Accident

Documentaries

FERRO VELHO 3.jpg

21/09/2018 GMT

Brazil's Nuclear Accident

BBC World Service - Witness History, Brazil's Nuclear Accident

Hundreds of people were contaminated when a disused radiotherapy machine was scrapped.

Hundreds of people were contaminated when a disused radiotherapy machine was dismantled in a scrap yard in Goiania. Four people died.

In September of 1987, two waste pickers in the Brazilian town of Goiania broke into a disused medical clinic and stole a radiotherapy machine, triggering the biggest ever radioactive accident outside a nuclear facility.Hundreds of people were contaminated and four people died. 

Thomas Pappon spoke to one of the victims and the physicist who was the first to assess the scale of the accident.   

Photo of technicians collecting nuclear waste in the contaminated scrap yard in Goiania. Copyright CNEN.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Brazil's Nuclear Accident

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East Asia

About BBC World Service