While working at a jobsite on the Fort Riley,
Kansas federal reservation, the technician had just finished the standard count on a
Troxler moisture/density
gauge when he received a telephone call to go to another job site for a meeting. The technician placed the
gauge back in its case but did not shut the case or lock the case and left it on the tailgate of the truck. When the technician arrived at the second jobsite, an individual approached the technician and told him that he had observed a yellow case fall off the back of the truck near the Camp Forsythe fire station. The technician immediately went back to the fire station. By the time he arrived, fire department personnel had already secured the case with the
gauge inside. The technician estimates that the
gauge was out of his possession for approximately 8 - 10 minutes. A leak test was performed with no leakage noted and sent to
Troxler for further analysis. The
gauge will remain out of use until leak results are received from
Troxler.
The gauge is a Troxler model 3430 moisture/density gauge containing 9 mCi Cs-137 and 44 mCi Am-241/Be.
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