The licensee from Chambersburg,
PA, was doing work in
West Virginia under a reciprocity agreement. The authorized user was conducting a reading when he was asked by his supervisor to pick-up a fellow employee at the construction yard approximately 1.5 miles from the reading site. After the reading was done, the user placed the
gauge in the back of his pickup truck and proceeded to the construction yard. Once he arrived at the yard, he saw that his truck tailgate was down and the
gauge was missing. The
gauge was not in its shipping container. The user and his co-worker doubled back in search of the
gauge but did not find it. When the
RSO arrived, another employee told him that he saw someone stopping along the highway to pick up what appeared to be the
gauge and then driving off. At that time, the employee was unaware a
gauge was missing so he didn't pay much attention to the vehicle.
The gauge is identified as a Troxler Electronics Laboratories Model # 3430, Serial # 32506. It contains 8 mCi of Cs-137 and 40 mCi of Am-241.
The RSO notified the West Virginia State Police, the local newspaper and the regional television station. The licensee is considering offering a reward for the return of the gauge.
The gauge has been recovered and is now in the possession of the licensee. Notified R1DO (Schroeder), ILTAB (Hahn), and FSME Events Resource (E-Mail).
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