The following was received from the Commonwealth of
Virginia via email:
On October 27th, the VRMP [Virginia Radioactive Materials Program] received a letter from CJCLDS [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints] stating that 25 exit signs each containing approximately 3 curies of H-3 were lost. The letter stated that a contractor was hired in July to replace the H-3 signs with new electric signs and place the H-3 signs in a closet so that CJCLDS staff could properly dispose of them by packaging and returning them. The letter stated the signs were not in the designated location.
The contractor was contacted by the VRMP who stated that an electrical sub-contractor was hired to perform this work. That company was contacted and VRMP was able to speak to the electrician and his supervisor. The electrician stated verbally and in writing that he removed the H-3 exit signs and placed them in the designated location.
A search was performed by CJCLDS staff and church members were contacted to see if they had seen the signs. It has been concluded that the signs were discarded by accident and can't be found or recovered at this time.
This location and the serial numbers of the H-3 signs could not be found in our GL database. The NRC was contacted to search their GL database for the serial numbers to no avail.
Virginia Event Report ID No: VA-15-9
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