At 1410
MST on 4/15/10, a
gauge operator was conducting a density reading near a culvert on Highway 28 in Hot Springs,
MT. After placing the
gauge at the target areas, the operator walked about twenty feet away. While he was away, a compactor that was compacting the road bed, slipped off the road near the culvert. When the compactor operator was backing up to get back on the road, he backed over the density
gauge.
The gauge operator immediately secured the area and contacted the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO). The RSO visually inspected the gauge and determined that both sources were retracted into the shielded position and appeared to be intact. He then surveyed the area and determined that no radiation release had occurred. The RSO conducted a wipe test and determined that no source leakage occurred. There were no personnel overexposures during this event. The gauge is currently in storage at the Montana Department of Transportation awaiting transport to Troxler for disposal.
The
gauge was a model 3440, serial number 36152. It contained a
Cs-137 source (serial number 77-3287, 8 mCi on 11/8/04) and an Am/Be-241 source (serial number 78-1047, 40 mCi on 10/13/04).