This is notification of an event in
Washington State as reported to or investigated by the WA Department of Health, Office of Radiation Protection.
The Boeing Company reported February 7th they are unable to find one gas chromatograph electron capture cell that contains 555 MBq (15 millicuries) of nickel-63. The Licensee became aware of the missing source on January 7, 2008, during a routine survey and inventory of their radioactive waste area. Based on their investigation, the licensee thinks the source was disposed of as radioactive waste in a shipment sent to the Low Level Radioactive Waste site in December 2007. The licensee attributes this to staff not following the established procedures for the transfer and disposal of the source. The person assigned waste area duties in December has subsequently left employment with Boeing. Confirming this directly is unlikely to happen. The Boeing RSO has reviewed the procedures and believes that when they are followed they are adequate to prevent loss of a source. However, the RSO will now require two people to be involved in the radioactive waste packaging process with both signing shipment documents before they are complete. The Boeing RSO reviewed the new procedure with the radiation safety staff. We are told, the discussion emphasized the importance of following the procedures. The RSO will have the waste manifest changed to show addition of the source.
Event Report #WA-08-011.
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.