The following was received from the State of Nevada via email:
On 06/27/2016 at 1845 [PDT], it was reported to the State of Nevada, Radiation Control Program that a moisture/density gauge, Troxler model 3440, containing 40mCi of Am-241/Be and 8mCi of Cs-137 was missing/lost. The gauge fell out of the back of a transport vehicle and was lost in Reno, Nevada. The gauge user set the gauge on the tailgate of his truck and took a phone call. He was distracted by the phone call and did not place the gauge in it's transport case or secure the gauge and drove back to the office where he realized the gauge had fallen out of the transport vehicle. The gauge user immediately called the RSO and retraced his route to find the gauge. The gauge was not found and it was reported to the Nevada Highway patrol, Washoe County Sheriff and Reno Police Department. The State is following the incident and working with local authorities to develop a press release. Follow-up information will be provided to NRC on the recovery of the lost gauge and entered into NMED.
Update 6/29/2016: 2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> following the press release, the gauge was recovered and returned to the owner.
Item Number: NV160010
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