The following information was received from the State of
Texas via email:
On August 30, 2012, a company contracted by a licensee to conduct a closeout of an imaging facility notified the Agency [Texas Department of State Health Services] that the licensee had sold an ADAC Gamma/PET Camera early in 2012 without proper shipping and transfer paperwork and with a 20 millicurie Cesium-137 seal source located inside the PET scanner. The PET scanner with internal source was brokered and sold to a company overseas. Details of the date of sale, broker company, and who purchased the device are unknown. An investigation into this event is ongoing and information will be updated as it is received per SA 300 [Reporting Material Events].
The State of Texas event number for this event is I - 8982.
Equipment: ADAC Gamma/PET Camera
Source: Cesium-137 -- 20 millicuries -- CZ882
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.