A 3.792 Curie
Ir-192 source was removed from a Varian High Dose Rate afterloader and prepared for shipment by common carrier. The packaged source was picked up from Glens Falls Hospital in Glens Falls,
New York by a representative of the common carrier on August 21, 2017. The destination of the source was to Alpha-Omega Services in Vinton,
Louisiana for disposal. The source arrived at the common carrier's local station in Manands,
New York on August 22, 2017. When the licensee checked package tracking information on August 30, 2016, the licensee noted that the package indicated that it was still at the common carrier's local station.
The licensee attempted to contact the common carrier on August 30, 2017 without success. The licensee successfully contacted the common carrier on August 31, 2017 and the common carrier initiated a 'station trace' at that time. At the present time the source has not been located. The common carrier is still searching.
- * * UPDATE ON 9/8/17 AT 1531 EDT FROM KATHARINE ARZATE TO DONG PARK * * *
The Ir-192 source was located by the common carrier at 1837 PDT on 9/1/17. The package was delivered to the recipient on 8/29/17.
Notified R1DO (Dentel), NMSS Events Notification, and Canada.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Note: This device is assigned an
IAEA Category 3 value based on the actual radioactivity of the source, not on the device type. (Reference
IAEA RG-G-1.9)