The licensee is reporting approximately 1.35 mCi of
C-14 in liquid form that is missing from it's Menlo Park facility.
On March 18, 1991, it was reported by the licensee to the Menlo Park Radiation Safety Committee that they had in their possession 9.3 mCi of C-14 which exceeded their maximum possession limit for their permit. At the time they recorded that, they had ordered, or logged as ordered, 5 mCi and 0.25 mCi of C-14. However, the licensee could not find any records that those isotopes had been actually received.
The RSO believes that the cause of the discrepancy between the quantity they actually have on-hand and the quantity that should be in inventory, as indicated by records, is due to a bookkeeping error. On November 7, 1990, the records show that they transferred 1.725 mCi which would leave a balance of 2.171 mCi. This transfer does not show up on the records until August 20, 1991. The quantity was adjusted on the record to 2.173 mCi. They believe that back in 1991 they misreported the amount of Carbon-14 that they actually had in inventory and the error was carried forward.
The licensee is going to start doing physical inventories of all isotopes on a 6-month basis as a corrective action.
- * * RETRACTION FROM HENDRICKSON TO SNYDER AT 1658 ON 2/27/13 * * *
This report was made due to an inventory error. This is event is retracted.
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