Halliburton finally tracked down the radioactive rod it lost in Texas about a month ago, ending fears that someone might discover it and suffer permanent injury, the Guardian reports. A three-man company crew lost the rod while identifying possible fracking sites between Pecos and Odessa on Sept. 11. Since then, the 7-inch rod, marked "Danger Radioactive: Do not handle," had been lying on a road in the Texas desert.
The national guard, police officers, and Halliburton workers all searched for the rod, which the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said "could cause permanent injury to a person who handled" it. The agency said the rod's source of radiation—called americium-241/beryllium, or Am-241—would likely take hours to cause health problems, but after a few days or weeks "could possibly—although it is unlikely—be fatal." It was the NRC's first case of a lost radioactive rod in 5 years. (More Halliburton stories.)