An electrical fire consumed a wooden building at Ft. Bragg, NC which housed two chemical detection devices. The first device was an Advanced Chemical Detection Alarm (M22) which contained 20 milliCuries of
Ni-63 and the second device was an Improved Chemical Agent Monitor (
ICAM) which contained 10 milliCuries of
Ni-63. The SSDR numbers for these devices are NR0155-D-125-S and NR0155-D-103-S, respectively. The building was destroyed and the area is covered with a foot of ash. The fire department has not been able to find the devices, and they do not know the configuration of the material. The area is secured and the base
RSO is sampling the area for loose surface contamination material.
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