The following information was received from the State of
Georgia via email:
On January 13, 2014, NOVA Engineering and Environmental, LLC had a Troxler 3440 gauge stolen out of the bed of the truck. There have been a couple thefts at this site leading up to this incident (2075 Princeton Ave., College Park, Georgia). The truck was parked at an active construction site (new elementary school) and the vehicles are required to park some distance away from the construction. During [the] NOVA gauge operator time at the site he stated he saw the gauge in the bed of the truck and sometime later he left this site to go to another. Upon arrival, he realized the chain had been cut and the gauge box was gone.
[The] NOVA RSO confirmed that the gauge box was only secured with one chain and that there was a lock on the box. A police report has been filed and will be available to be viewed in three to five days. At this moment, all gauges are locked in storage at the company's office. Gauges are only allowed to be removed if there is an assignment. Prior to this, the gauge stayed in the bed of the truck and went to all job sites even if there wasn't an assignment for it.
A leak test was done on November 27, 2013 and the result report was created on December 13th 2013 by Atlantic Supply with no areas of concern.
Gauge Information:
Model Number: Troxler 3440
Serial Number: 22661
Isotope: Am-241 and Cs-137
Source serial numbers: 47-18503 (Cs-137) and 75-4417 (Am-241)
Activity: 8mCi Cs-137 and 40mCi Am-241
GA Complaint ID: 72861
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