On 4/13/11, two radiography cameras were picked up by the shipper from the licensee facility in Hammond, IN. The cameras were being sent to
QSA in Baton Rouge, LA. On 4/14/11, one camera arrived at
QSA while the other was still shown in the shipper's hub in Memphis, TN. On 4/15/11, the licensee contacted the shipper when tracking indicated that the camera was still in Memphis. The shipper could not find the package and is conducting a search of the facility at this time.
The missing camera is a QSA 8880D, serial no. D4264 and contains a 15.9 Ci Ir-192 source, serial no. 66411B.
- * * UPDATE FROM DAVID TEBO TO JOHN KNOKE AT 1545 EDT ON 04/15/11 * * *
At 1540 EDT, the licensee was notified by the shipper that the missing camera was returned to the licensee's office in Hammond, IN. The licensee confirmed that the missing camera is now at their office, the source is in the camera, and the serial number matches. Licensee is investigating this matter further.
Notified R2DO (O'Donohue), R3DO (Orth), ILTAB (Pearson), IRD MOC (Gott), and FSME EO (Giantelli)
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Although IAEA categorization of this event is typically based on device type, the staff has been made aware of the actual activity of the source, and after calculation determines that it is a Category 3 event.
Note: the value assigned by device type "Category 2" is different than the calculated value "Category 3