The following information was provided by the State of
Georgia via facsimile:
Theragenics was packing radioactive seeds for transport to customer when one of the seeds was lost in the strand lab and could not be found. This was an Iodine 125 seed manufactured by Medi-Physics, model Oconoseed 6711. At the time of production the seed had a radioactivity of 0.696 mCi, but by the time of the report had decayed to 0.492 mCi radioactivity.
On November 12, 2014, licensee personnel were filling an order for stranded seeds when a seed could not be accounted for. After searching the lab area continually and personnel when they left the lab (portal monitor scanning), the seed still has not been found. The licensee made a report via phone notification of the missing seed on December 12, 2014.
License has conducted refresher training for employees who work in the lab areas. An emphasis was noted on handling technique, especially during mid-late October through November, when the change in weather and humidity have traditionally resulted in an increase of seed-handling errors, i.e., seeds 'popping' out of tweezers during manipulation. Additionally, the strand lab is scheduled for its semi-annual cleaning (per General Lab Practice) on December 19-20, 2014. During that process, crews will look for this seed and the one that was reported missing from September 2014.
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