The State provided the following information via email:
Flowserve Corporation, a General Licensee, reported to Ohio Department of Health (ODH) on 2/8/06 that they were unable to account for two ionizer bars from static eliminator devices. Each device was from an NRD model P-2001 and contained an estimated 4 mCi each of Po-210. The devices were removed from a facility being shut down over the time period June 2005 through December 2005. The devices were discovered missing when the manufacturer notified Flowserve that it was time to exchange the Po-210 sources. Flowserve determined that the devices had gone to one of three places: 1. to another Flowserve facility; 2. mistakenly placed in a roll-off container and disposed of as construction debris; or 3. mistakenly placed in a roll-off container and disposed of as scrap metal. An investigation by Flowserve has determined that the devices were not sent to another facility. Flowserve has contacted their decommissioning contractors and have determined that all construction debris was disposed of at various landfills throughout the greater Cincinnati/Dayton area, and that all scrap metals were disposed of through a broker which immediately sent the metals on for processing/recycling. Flowserve does not consider any further investigation to be beneficial at this time.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "LESS THAN CAT 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
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.