The licensee provided the following information via email:
A customer of Cardinal Health called Cardinal on Tuesday, 16 August 2005, to inform Cardinal that they had not received part of their nuclear medicine order for Monday, 15 August. Only one of the two cases ordered had been delivered. The missing case contained 6 doses of diagnostic technetium-99m (a maximum total activity of 9.36 Megabecquerels [253 millicuries] as of ~ 06:30 am on 15 August). Cardinal Health indicates the doses were prepared early the morning of 15 August. The driver who delivered to the customer location on 15 August stated that only one case had been picked up from the pharmacy for that customer. Survey of delivery vehicle confirmed absence of missing radioactive material. The customer is sure that they did not receive the shipment. ORP performed a Cardinal facility site investigation on 19 August. Cardinal Health has not yet been able to explain what actually happened. Cardinal Health and ORP continue to investigate the event (Event Report # WA-05-047).
Less than the quantity of an IAEA Category 3 source. Sources that are 'Less than IAEA 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
IAEA 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.