The following report was received from the
Alabama Department of Public Health via facsimile:
On July 19, 2011, [the] Radiation Safety Officer for Building and Earth Sciences of Birmingham, Alabama notified the Alabama Office of Radiation Control that their 2004 Toyota Tacoma truck with a Troxler model 3430 moisture density gauge was stolen at the Kroger's Grocery Store parking lot at 300 North Dean Road in Auburn, Alabama. Building and Earth Sciences is authorized to possess and use radioactive material under their Alabama Radioactive Material License No. 1266. The Auburn Police Department was advised of the incident. The stolen gauge was identified as a Troxler model 3430, serial number 22300, with 0.3 gigabecquerels of Cs-137 and 1.48 gigabecquerels of Am-241:Be. [The RSO] indicated that the gauge transport case was properly secured within the bed of the pickup.
As of July, 27, 2011, 11:00 AM CDT, the truck and the device containing radioactive material remain missing. This is all the information that this Agency [Alabama DPH] has at this time.
Alabama Event 11-28
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