The following was received from the State of
North Dakota via email:
Taney Engineering, Inc. (Taney) reported the loss of a moisture/density gauge (Troxler Model No. 3430, Serial No. 30530) that contained a 1.48GBq (40mCi) Am-241:Be source (Serial No. 47-27626) and a 0.3 GBq (8 mCi) Cs-137 source (Serial No. 77-13400) currently licensed under North Dakota Department of Health License No. 33-53306-01. This event was initially reported to the Minot, North Dakota Police Department at 11:54 P.M. on Sunday, 11/15/2015. At that time, the field inspector noticed the Troxler nuclear density gauge designated above to be missing from the bed of his truck at the end of the day. The field inspector stated the nuclear density gauge was in the yellow transport box secured in the bed of his truck with chains and locks to both side handles and locks on the transport case when he stopped at Wal-Mart located at 3900 S Broadway St., Minot, ND 58701. When he returned from the store, the equipment was still secure in the bed of his truck. He drove to Buffalo Wild Wings in the adjoining parking lot located at 3820 S Broadway St., Minot, ND 58701 at approximately 11:35 P.M. He placed an order for take-out and waited for food inside. He arrived home in Minot, ND 58701 before 11:50 P.M. to drop off groceries before checking in the nuclear gauge and discovered company equipment, including the gauge, missing from the back of his truck. He immediately notified the Minot Police Department, filed incident report No. 2015-00036173. He then notified Troxler Electronic Laboratories at 877-876-9537. He than notified Taney.
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