The employee placed the
CPN Moisture Density Gauge (s/n: 18098458 Am/Be,
Cs-137) into its case and placed the case in the back of the pickup truck. Before the employee chained the case to the truck he was required to move away from the back of the truck. He later drove away without chaining the case to the truck or closing the back gate. About 0.3 miles down the road he noticed that the gate was open and the
gauge was missing. He returned to the work site but did not see the
gauge along the way and could not find the
gauge at the work site. The incident was reported to the local police. The company is notifying the local news media and is offering a reward.
Less than the quantity of a Category 3 source.
Sources that are "Less than Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury.
For some of these sources, such as moisture density gauges or thickness gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks.
- * * UPDATE FROM RODRIGUEZ TO HUFFMAN AT 1510 EDT ON 8/22/05 * * *
The licensee states that an individual retrieved the
gauge from the road after it had fallen off the truck. The
gauge was stored in an office building where the individual worked. The individual that recovered the
gauge could not find any identifying information on the
gauge container as to the owner or a contact telephone number. However, the individual did hear about the lost
gauge through media coverage and was, therefore, able to track down and contact the licensee. At 12:30 EDT on 8/22/05, the licensee has recovered the
gauge from the individual that found it and observed that it was in its properly stored and safe configuration. It has been examined in detail and is not damaged in any way. The licensee stated that he also planned to notify the responsible NRC Region 1 inspector (Beardsley) about the recovery of the
gauge. R1DO (Cook),
NMSS EO (Morell), and TAS (Perez via email) have been notified.