The following information was received from the State of
Texas via email:
The licensee called to report the theft of a moisture density gauge. The vehicle was dispatched to a work location in Houston. On the way, the driver stopped at a McDonald's not far from the office. When the driver arrived at the job site, he discovered the tailgate down and the security chain had been cut. The licensee had not filed a police report when the RSO notified the radiation control program in Texas. The RSO was instructed to contact police as soon as possible. The gauge is a Humboldt model 5001 EZ. The serial number is 3664. The device contains an 11 millicurie Cs-137 source, serial number 0283cx, and a 44 millicurie Americium 241/Be source, serial number nj03996. The licensee was encouraged to offer a reward for the return of the gauge.
Texas Incident #: I-9191
- * * UPDATE AT 1623 EDT ON 05/09/14 FROM ROBERT FREE TO S. SANDIN VIA EMAIL * * *
The licensee emailed that the device was recovered by a passerby who found it by the side of the road. The licensee reported the device was still locked in its transportation container. The licensee recovered the container, leak tested the device and found no radioactive contamination. There was no radiation exposure to a member of the public.
Notified R4DO (Whitten), FSME_Events Resource and ILTAB via email, and Mexico via fax.
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