Covidien was shipping a Molybdenum/Technetium generator to Bermuda on 2/12/2010. It was being transshipped in Atlanta for air delivery to Bermuda on one of Delta Airlines twice weekly flights. On 2/14/2010, the shipment was bumped to the next flight and on 2/18/2010 it was again bumped. The recipient was contacted and declined the shipment. Delta was contacted and stated that they could no longer locate the shipment.
The initial activity was 3 Ci of Mo-99m which would have decayed to 41 mCi on 3/1/2010.
- * * UPDATE ON 3/5/10 AT 1030 EST FROM DAN HOFFMAN TO PETE SNYDER * * *
On March 3, 2010, Covidien was notified by Delta that they had located the package at their Bermuda Cargo Facility. Delta will return the package to Covidien.
Notified R3DO (Giessner) and FSME (McIntosh).
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