Latest News: Thieves Transport 200 Kg of Iron Contaminated with Cesium-137 from Cikande Warehouse

The police have arrested four gangs of iron thieves contaminated with radioactive Cesium-137 in the Cikande Modern Industrial Area, Serang, Banten. The perpetrator transported 200 kilograms of iron from the warehouse to a junkyard in Bandung District, Serang.
“The items stolen consisted of various types with a total of around 200 kilograms. All of them have been returned to PT PMT’s interim storage. Thank God, these items have not had time to circulate outside the area and are still intact,” said Deputy Gakkum of the Ministry of the Environment (KLH) Inspector General Pol Rizal Irawan at the Serang Police, Thursday (11/12/2025).
According to Rizal, the warehouse at PT PMT is a temporary storage warehouse. The government will create a permanent warehouse to store items exposed to radiation.
“Currently the evidence is in interim storage, namely a temporary warehouse. Later there will be permanent storage. This is being discussed with Bapeten and BRIN, because they have the authority regarding determining buildings and storage standards,” he said.

Rizal said that BRIN and Bapeten were still looking for a suitable location. There are several criteria that must be considered.
“There are many criteria that must be met, for example not being in an earthquake zone, not being in an area prone to flooding, and meeting the technical requirements for storing radionuclides,” he said.
Previously, the Serang Police together with the Cikande Police uncovered a case of theft of iron waste contaminated with radioactive Cesium-137 at PT PMT. The iron was an item collected by the Cesium-137 Task Force while carrying out decontamination of the Cikande area.
Police arrested four people in connection with the theft case. Two of them are PT PMT security guards.

Serang Police Chief AKBP Condro Sasongko said that initially his party received information from social media regarding the alleged theft of iron at PT PMT. The company is a storage place for goods contaminated with radioactive Cesium-137 resulting from task force operations in the Cikande Modern Industrial Area.
“The Cikande Police Criminal Investigation Unit Operations Team immediately carried out an investigation and finally succeeded in arresting the perpetrators,” said AKBP Condro, accompanied by Cikande Police Chief AKP Tatang, Wednesday (10/12/2025).

Initially, the police arrested the perpetrator with the initials RO (26) on Monday (8/12). RO is the main actor who brings out iron waste from the storage location.
“From RO’s statement, the police arrested two PT PMT security officers, namely SA and MZ, residents of Bandung District. Both of them are strongly suspected of assisting in the theft process by facilitating access to the radioactive waste storage area,” he said.
Furthermore, the police arrested the collector with the initials SM (29) in Bandung District, Serang Regency. SM has a junkyard that accepts stolen iron contaminated with radioactivity.

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