I am calling per
10 CFR 20.2201(a)(ii) to notify you of a possible loss of radioactive material at the
VA Medical Center, New Orleans,
Louisiana, a permittee under the
VA license. This incident occurred on or around August 30, 2005, and was discovered October 7, 2005. This possible incident resulted from the flooding of the radioactive waste storage room at the medical center and involved the loss of radioactive materials.
The materials which are considered lost are Iodine 131 and Iodine 125. The unsealed materials were in waste containers and may have washed out of the containers when the waste room was flooded. The dilution of the small amount of activity in the floodwaters precludes any possible public dose or health and safety concern.
These circumstances are considered a possible incident since a technical evaluation to estimate the loss is not based on quantitative measurements or surveys. Also, the tags and waste records attached to the containers were obliterated by the floodwaters. Attempts to estimate the activity began on October 7, 2005, and an estimate of the original activity was submitted by the permittee in a preliminary report to the National Health Physics Program on October 24, 2005.
A best estimate based on review of storage records, radioactive decay, and observations and measurements in the waste room is that, perhaps, as much as 200 microcuries Iodine 131 and 600 microcuries Iodine 125 in storage August 30, 2005, cannot be specifically located or identified as being present in the waste storage room on October 7, 2005.
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. 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.