Agilent Technologies is a manufacturer of a part containing an electron capture detector (
ECD) that fits into a gas chromatograph. The
ECD contains an embedded sealed source (
Ni-63; 15 milliCuries) and is manufactured in Shanghai, China and is transferred into the United States through the JFK Airport Worldwide Flight Services Warehouse. When the licensee's Philadelphia truck shipping service attempted to retrieve the two
ECD sources at the JFK warehouse, the sources were discovered missing. The warehouse was searched without success.
The ECD source serial numbers are U30355 and U30356. The model number is 62397AECD.
Agilent Technologies holds an NRC license and is located at 2850 Centerville Road, Wilmington, DE 19808.
- * * UPDATE ON 1/27/17 AT 1457 EST FROM DAVID BENNETT TO DONG PARK * * *
As a corrective action, the licensee has changed warehouse operations to a different warehouse used to receive devices manufactured in China.
Notified R1DO (Welling) and NMSS Events Notification via email.
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