A technician for the licensee was taking asphalt density measurements at the Lua Lua Lei Naval Magazine Base in Hawaii. He was using a
Troxler 3450
gauge (nominal 8 mCuries
Cs-137 and 40 mCuries Am-241/Be) which was placed in the back of his pickup truck in anticipation of taking additional measurements. He was subsequently informed that no additional density measurements were needed. He completed his paper work and got into his truck and drove off the site. He drove about 1 mile before he realized that he had not secured the
gauge in the back of the truck. He stopped and discovered the
gauge was missing and had apparently fallen out of the truck bed. He retraced his route but was not able to locate the
gauge.
The RSO is in the process of requesting assistance from local authorities in helping to locate the missing gauge.
- * * UPDATE FROM R. PICKERING TO JOE O'HARA AT 1646 ON 4/28/08 * * *
The Troxler gauge was found in a brush area near the side of the road. The case is damaged, and the RSO will be performing a radiological assessment of the damaged case and reporting the results to Troxler for further shipping instructions.
Notified R4DO(Pick), FSME(Hsueh), and ILTAB (e-mail).
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.