The following information was obtained from the State of
Florida via email:
An audit conducted on James Hardie Building Products on April 4th, 2016 discovered a thickness gauge (NDC Model 102) was unaccounted for. The company was in the process of transferring equipment and under going an expansion. The auditor gave the company time to search for the device. As of 5/4/2016 all nine (9) of their facilities have been searched and the gauge has not been found. The last positive 'eyes on' sighting of device occurred in 2013 at the Plant City facility. The device was locked down to a wooden pallet. New policies and procedures are being implemented by James Hardie Building Products.
Although the audit was completed on April 4, 2016, the licensee did not conclude their search of all their facilities until April 7, 2016. The gauge was an NDC Systems Model 102, serial number 11838, containing 25 mCi of Am-241.
Florida Incident Number: FL16-059
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