The following is a summary of information received via fax:
The licensee reported a lost 189 micro-Curie Cs-137 source at 1500 [EST] on 12/29/09. Also missing was the certificate for the source. Miami Inspection Office will investigate. The incident occurred at the Miami Diagnostic Interventional Center located in Miami Lakes, FL.
- * * UPDATE FROM FURNACE TO TEAL AT 1631 ON 12/30/2009 * * *
[An] investigator determined that source became missing sometime between December 8th to the 23rd. [As a] corrective action [the] licensee will restrict who has possession of Hot Lab keys to, the owner, office manager, and nuclear medicine technologist. Incident referred to Materials and Licensing for any further investigation. This office will take no further action on this incident.
FL Incident #: FL09-088
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. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
This source is not amongst those sources or devices identified by the
IAEA Code of Conduct for the Safety & Security of Radioactive Sources to be of concern from a radiological standpoint. Therefore is it being categorized as a less than Category 3 source