The following information was received via email:
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, the radiation safety officer (RSO) of Nuclear Diagnostic Products of Philadelphia called to inform the [New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Radioactive Materials Program] NJDEPs RMP that a sealed rod source containing approximately 2.68 microCuries of cobalt-57 was unaccounted for at their facility. The source had been returned to the licensee by one of their customers for disposal. The source was secured at their location prior to being shipped for final disposal. In the interim, the room where the source was being secured was painted and materials were moved to a different room while the painting activities occurred. The painting activities began about three weeks ago.
When the removed materials were returned to the room after the painting was concluded recently, the source could not be found. A search was conducted by the licensee, but, to date, the source cannot be located. The licensee believes the box that contained the source was either inadvertently placed in the garbage for routine disposal or the source was placed into a sharps container for incineration with biohazard materials. The licensee will continue to look, but informed us of the matter after what they believe is a comprehensive search.
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