The following report was received from the
Mississippi Division of Radiological Health (
DHR) via e-mail:
The licensee's RSO contacted DRH to report the theft of their Troxler Model 3440 (S/N 22563) nuclear gauge that was secured in the back of their white marked pick-up truck parked six spaces from the front entrance of the Wal-Mart [located in Meridian, MS]. The two gauge cables were cut and the gauge was taken out of the truck bed. All required shipping documentation was stolen out of the unlocked cab of the truck. The gauge and gauge paperwork were estimated to have been stolen around 1820 [CST]. The gauge was stored in the yellow plastic transport case with Radioactive Yellow II labels attached. The yellow plastic transport case had two locks on the outer container and two cables threaded through the top handle and locked with two separate locks on each separate eye hook.
Meridian City Police were immediately notified by the licensee. Licensee notified Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) at 1940 [CST]. MEMA contacted DRH at 1955 [CST]. DRH notified Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who then notified FBI.
DRH performed an inspection and investigation on November 16, 2011 at Terracon Consultants, Inc., in Ridgeland."
The gauge contained the following sources: Cs-137 (S/N 75-4297) (8 mCi); Am-241:Be (S/N 47-18403) (40 mCi)
Mississippi Report MS-11006
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