Brief Description of Incident
Railroad [RR] car arrived at Nucor Steel [in South Carolina] at 10AM on February 18, 2008. The RR car set off the exploranium detection equipment, so to ensure accuracy the RR car was passed through 4 times. Radiation measurement of RR car #JOSX 1771 was 25 microR/hr [which is] five times background (5 microR/hr). Notified SC-DHEC -Radiation Waste [DELETED] who further contacted NC DENR. [DELETED] from SC Nucor Steel was given CRCPD approval (see SC-NC 08-01) for return trip of rail car to point of origin, Iron & Metal Goldsboro, N.C.
The Rail Car numbered JOSX 1771 returned from Nucor Steel Darlington, SC on February 28, 2008. [NC-DENR] arrived at their location in Goldsboro on February 29, 2008 in the AM, as requested and took reading from the rail car and found only one hot spot (35 microR/hr - Ludlum 19) that was located on the left side of the railcar toward the upper middle portion of container. The item in question was located.
I annotated what was legible and it is the following: Model number 7062 BP; Serial Number 18317; Manufacturing Date 1984; Type and Amount of Isotope Cs-137, 100 mCi. Highest Readings 10.5 mR/hr on contact with Ludlum 19 and Identifinder.
Gauge SN 18317 was retrieved from Iron & Metal Goldsboro with chain of custody letter signed by all parties, then taken to storage room at the GAF Materials Corp. where three other gauges are now kept.
GAF Materials has custody of the damaged gauge and will package it and ship it to a suitable vendor for repair.
N.C. Incident Number 08-09.
The State of
North Carolina informed Region 1(Jim Cotton).