The following information was provided by the State of
Texas via email:
On March 28, 2017, the Agency [Department of State Health Services] was notified by the licensee that a Troxler Model 3411 moisture/density gauge was stolen from one of its trucks. The gauge contains a 40 milliCurie americium-241 source and an eight milliCurie cesium-137 source. The gauge had been used at a job site the day before by a technician and taken to their home [located in Fort Worth] for the night, stored (locked) in the bed of the truck. Since the operating rod for the cesium source was locked in the shielded position and the case was also locked, the licensee does not believe a member of the general public would receive any significant exposure. The radiation safety officer stated he would provide additional information to the Agency as soon as he completed his interview with the technician. Additional information will be provided as it is received in accordance with SA-300.
TX Incident #: I-9475
- * * UPDATE PROVIDED BY ART TUCKER TO JEFF ROTTON AT 1029 EDT ON 03/28/2017 * * *
The following information was provided by the State of Texas via email:
The stolen moisture density gauge was actually a Troxler 3430 versus a Troxler 3411 as described in the above paragraph.
Notified R4DO (Hipschman), NMSS Events Notification group, ILTAB, and Mexico 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