ENS 46098
ENS Event | |
|---|---|
05:00 Jul 13, 2010 | |
| Title | Agreement State Report - Missing Brachytherapy Sources |
| Event Description | On July 15, 2010 the Director of Radiological Services at Riverside Medical Center (IL-01242-01), Kankakee, IL called the Agency [Illinois Emergency Management Agency] to advise that they were missing several sealed sources associated with their inactive brachytherapy program. She had been contacted by her radiation safety officer, who made the initial discovery on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. The staff began a visual search the same day.
The Riverside Medical Center Administration was notified the following day and directed that additional searches be conducted of more potential locations as the old storage area had since been demolished as part of a facility remodeling project and the safe could have been relocated to another area of the Medical Center. Housekeeping, Maintenance, Facility Management, Radiology and Security Departments at the Medical Center were directed to take part in the search as well. Prior to the remodeling, 14 sources of Cs-137 were stored in a lead lined 'safe' which had been locked and secured in a basement storage room of the facility. The new RSO had been in the process of conducting a routine inventory/leak test of the sources when the discovery was made. The key to the safe was still in the possession of the RSO. The 'safe' is approximately 1.5'x1.5'x2.0'. Its weight precludes one or two individuals from removing the safe without additional mechanical assistance. It was marked and labeled with appropriate warning signs. The specific inventory of sources is as follows with activities corrected as of today's date; 2 sources of 46 milliCi, 4 sources of 31 milliCi, 4 sources of 23 milliCi and 4 sources of 16 milliCi. The manufacturer's safety sheets infers that these sources have a dose rate of 3.6 milliR/h at a distance of 1 foot for each milliCi of activity (46 milliCi; 167 milliR/h). The sources are nickel plated and appear metallic. The radioactivity is doubly encapsulated within stainless steel. Individually the sources are less than a tenth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter and less than an inch (20 millimeters) in length. The sources were last used for a medical treatment in October of 2003 but were included in routine inventories and leak tests. The licensee has no information to suggest any nefarious activity associated with the missing storage safe/sources and currently suspects it may have been removed from the site as part of the construction debris associated with last year's remodeling. A consultant has been contracted to perform additional monitoring at their facility with more sensitive radiation instruments in hopes of locating the storage safe. The Agency [Illinois Emergency Management Agency] is monitoring the licensee's search efforts. Sources of this nature are likely to set off radiation monitor alarms which are established at scrap metal facilities and some landfills however, an intact storage safe with the sources still inside is less likely to set off such alarms, due to its inherent shielding to protect medical staff. Maximum surface readings from the safe as measured previously by Agency personnel during site inspections are approximately 35 milliR/h with readings falling to 0.5 to 2 milliR/h at one foot. All sources were physically confirmed as being present by the Agency during a 2005 inspection. Illinois Report Number: IL10049 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 |
| Where | |
|---|---|
| Riverside Medical Center Kankakee, Illinois (NRC Region 3) | |
| License number: | IL-01242-01 |
| Organization: | Illinois Emergency Mgmt. Agency |
| Reporting | |
| Agreement State | |
| Time - Person (Reporting Time:+61.48 h2.562 days <br />0.366 weeks <br />0.0842 months <br />) | |
| Opened: | Daren Perrero 18:29 Jul 15, 2010 |
| NRC Officer: | Mark Abramovitz |
| Last Updated: | Jul 15, 2010 |
| 46098 - NRC Website | |
Riverside Medical Center with Agreement State | |
WEEKMONTHYEARENS 538622016-04-20T06:00:00020 April 2016 06:00:00
[Table view]Agreement State Agreement State Report - Underdose Exceeding 20 Percent of the Prescribed Dose ENS 511182015-06-02T05:00:0002 June 2015 05:00:00 Agreement State Agreement State Report - Medical Event Due to Mis-Administration of Y-90 Sir-Spheres ENS 460982010-07-13T05:00:00013 July 2010 05:00:00 Agreement State Agreement State Report - Missing Brachytherapy Sources 2016-04-20T06:00:00 | |