The following event report was received from the
Washington Office of Radiation Protection via e-mail:
On or about 10 July 2011, upon taking inventory of the static eliminators, a device was found to be missing. The device was leased from NRD, LLC on 10 November 2009. The last time the device was used was 2 June 2011. Upon discovering the device was missing, a thorough search of the facility was conducted to include personal lockers, the boat, the boat parts, the boat house, as well as other facilities around the company. At this time no one knows the location of the device, whether it was stolen, misplaced or thrown away. The company will inform the department if the device is found. Since this incident, Westport Shipyard 50 Meter Facility has changed its protocols for issuing and receiving these types of devices. They will be placed in the safety department in a locked cabinet. The will be logged out by safety on the day of use and logged back in the same day. Only leads and Supervisor will have the ability to sign for these devices and will be held accountable for their safe return at the end of the operation.
The static eliminator was manufactured by NRD, LLC; Model # P-2030-0010 / Serial # A2GY503. The device contains a Po-210, 40 milliCurie sealed source.
Washington State Report: WA110035
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