The State of
Arizona emailed the following information:
This First Notice constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. The information is as initially received WITHOUT verification or evaluation, and is basically all that is known by the Agency Staff [Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency] at this time.
At approximately 8:00 AM December 20, 2010, the licensee phoned the Agency [state] to report of a stolen Troxler Laboratories Model # 3430, serial # 36977. The truck from which the gauge was stolen was located at 3330 West Greenway Road Bld. #7, Phoenix, AZ. The gauge contained 8 milliCuries of Cesium-137 and [40 milliCuries (typical) Americium-241: Beryllium]. Phoenix Police were notified at 6:00 AM by the employee. The employee stated that his keys were stolen out of his apartment. The thief then took the gauge out of its agency required lockbox from the bed of a company truck. Phoenix PD is also investigating this event.
The Agency continues to investigate the actions of the licensee and timeliness of reporting the theft. Mexico, the States of CA, CO, NE, NM, UT, and TX as well as the U.S. NRC and the Arizona Governor's office have been notified of this event. Press coverage is not anticipated.
First Notice: 10-014
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