During a remodel of Wal-Mart Store #566 in Boonville,
Indiana, the remodeling contractor found one
tritium sign. According to the Wal-Mart Radiation Safety Officer (
RSO), the sign was an Isolite model with an estimated 11 Curie source strength. The contractor was instructed to properly isolate and store the
tritium sign. When a Wal-Mart consultant arrived at the Wal-Mart store to inspect the
tritium sign, the sign could not be found in the storage location. Wal-Mart considers the
tritium sign to be lost.
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