The story in brief
A cancer clinic moves out and leaves its cesium machine in the ruins. Two young men wheel its head home, a powder glows blue in a garage, and for two weeks Goiânia passes it from hand to hand while its doctors see food allergies. Then a woman puts it in a bag and takes a bus, and a physicist’s meter will not stop.
The chapters
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Chapter 1 · 5 min · Free
The Machine in the Ruins
A cancer machine left in the ruins, a quarrel over who owns it, and two young men with a wheelbarrow.
Sources: IAEA, The Radiological Accident in Goiânia (1988); CNEN
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Chapter 2 · 5 min · Free
The Blue Glow
A powder that glows blue in the dark, handed out like a gift, and a city of doctors who never think of radiation.
Sources: IAEA, The Radiological Accident in Goiânia (1988), Table II and Part IV
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Chapter 3 · 5 min
The Bag on the Bus
A woman with a bag on a city bus, a doctor who moves it to a chair, and a physicist whose meter will not stop.
Sources: IAEA, The Radiological Accident in Goiânia (1988), Table II and section 4
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Chapter 4 · 5 min
The Stadium
A city lines up at its stadium, a block of concrete swallows a chair, and a painter’s blue becomes a medicine.
Sources: IAEA, The Radiological Accident in Goiânia (1988), sections 4 and 5, Appendices II and IV
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Chapter 5 · 6 min
The Rules It Wrote
Seven houses torn down, a hill of waste, a court case, and a warning sign anyone can read without a word.
Sources: IAEA (1988); The federal court in Goiás (1992, 1995); Lei 10.308 (2001); IAEA Code of Conduct (2003)
Who’s who
The people you meet. Each one is a hero card you can collect.
- Rex Nazaré AlvesPresident of CNEN · The Licensing Agency · Led the Cleanup in Person
- Robert BunsenChemist · Named Cesium for Its Blue · The Bunsen Burner
- José de Júlio RozentalCNEN Emergency Coordinator · Landed after Midnight · Sealed the Source in Concrete
- The Doctors and NursesGoiânia and Rio · Twenty Patients · No Training, No Retreat
- The CNEN TeamsPhysicists and Technicians · 550 at the Peak · Home by Christmas
- Maria Gabriela FerreiraShe Took the Bag to the Authorities · 1949 to 1987
What you’ll be able to tell
This story belongs to the journey “Invisible Killers”. By the end of it, you can tell how quarantine, public health and radiation rules were born from the people who saw the danger first.
Stories in this journey
- The Black Death: A Third of Europe
- The Spanish Flu: The Flu That Hid Behind a War
- Cesium-137: The Blue Glow of Goiânia
Sources
- IAEA, The Radiological Accident in Goiânia (1988)
- CNEN
- The federal court in Goiás (1992, 1995)
- IAEA Code of Conduct (2003)
