The following is excerpted from an email from the
Maryland Department of the Environment:
On 06/28/2017 at 7:15 EDT, the State project engineer (PE) reported that his project trailer had been broken into and a portable nuclear gauge (serial number 062051) was stolen. The equipment was kept stored, with a lock on the outside of the trailer and then locked inside the trailer. The gauge was stored locked in its carrying case.
The gauge model number is Troxler 3440. The gauge contains an 8 mCi Cs-137 source and 40 mCi Am-241/Be source.
Prince George's County Police Department was notified.
- * * UPDATE AT 1507 EDT ON 7/5/17 FROM ALAN JACOBSON TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ * * *
The following report was received via e-mail:
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has reported that the portable nuclear gauge stolen on June 28, 2017 from a Maryland Department of Transportation, State Highway Administration (SHA) Project has been recovered. The gauge was apparently found abandoned on a residential property in District Heights, Maryland and recovered by Prince Georges County Police on July 4, 2017 with assistance from the Prince Georges County Fire/EMS Department's HAZMAT Division. The gauge was not damaged. Inspectors from the MDE's Air and Radiation Administration inspected the gauge, confirmed the device was not damaged and it was returned to the SHA Radiation Safety Officer on July 5, 2017.
Notified the R1DO (Ferdas), ILTAB (Tucker), IRD (Grant), and NMSS Resources (via e-mail).
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