Environmental radioactivity part of the Chernobyl release was the caesium-137, this isotope is responsible for much of the long term (at least one year after the fire) external exposure which has occurred at the site. The caesium isotopes in the fallout have had an effect on farming. A large amount of caesium was released during the Goiânia accident where a radioactive source (made for medical use) was stolen and then smashed open during an attempt to convert it into scrap metal. The accident could have been stopped at several stages; first, the last legal owners of the source failed to make arrangements
Caesium-137 meter distance. In the Acerinox accident of 1998, the Spanish recycling company Acerinox accidentally melted down a mass of radioactive caesium-137 that came from a gamma-ray generator. In 2009, a Chinese cement company (in Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province) was demolishing an old, unused cement plant and did not follow standards for handling radioactive materials. This caused some caesium-137 from a measuring instrument to be included with eight truckloads of scrap metal on its way to a steel mill, where the radioactive caesium was melted down into the steel. In March 2015, the Norwegian University of Tromsø lost 8 radioactive samples including