ENS 53013
ENS Event | |
|---|---|
05:00 Sep 8, 2017 | |
| Title | Agreement State Report - Loss or Theft of Licensed Nuclear Material |
| Event Description | The following was reported from the State of Mississippi:
Description of Incident: Licensee reported that their Niton gun was discovered to be misplaced or stolen on September 8, 2017. A letter was received by Mississippi State Department of Health: Division of Radiological Health (DRH) from the licensee on October 13, 2017 briefly detailing that their equipment had been lost or stolen. DRH intends to issue a violation letter to Southern Recycling due to the late notification. Also, due to lacking information, DRH cannot confirm if the device reported to have been stolen/lost contains radioactive material. DRH has attempted to contact the Licensee a number of times to acquire more information; however, there has been no response. DRH will continue contacting the licensee for more information and will update this report once complete. Isotope(s): Cd-109 (potentially lost source not confirmed), with an activity of 10 mCi. The DRH Health Physicist stated that this would give a reading of approximately 20 mRem at one foot if unshielded. Mississippi has assigned an incident number of MS17006.
DRH was able to contact Licensee regarding the lost source. Licensee originally bought the device in 2007 to use at their facility. After a period of time, the device was more ineffective than effective, causing the Licensee to send the Niton gun for repairs. Licensee was informed that the source would have to be changed in order to alleviate the issue, but Licensee did not seek that avenue due to high costs. Even with the Niton gun being ineffective, Licensee maintained possession of the device until losing it three (3) years ago. The Licensee's coworker recently reminded them that DRH should be informed about the missing source. After contacting DRH about the missing source, DRH contacted a representative from Thermo Scientific to discuss the lifetime of the source. It was discovered that the source's assay date is 2/1/2006 and was shipped to the first owner on 12/6/2006. No other radioactive material was shipped to the Licensee in question from Thermo Scientific. Knowing that the lost source is Cd-109, which has a half-life = 462.6 days, it was discovered that the 10 mCi source will have decayed (as of today) to an activity level of 0.01618 mCi. Also, if the source was one (1) foot away from the target, the target would receive a dose-rate = 33.86 microR/hr. DRH closed this case on 10/30/2017. Notified R4DO (Werner) and NMSS Events Notification via email.
The following report was received via email: The Source Serial Number for the Cd-109 source is U3134. Notified R4DO (Pick) 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 |
| Where | |
|---|---|
| Southern Recycling Walls, Mississippi (NRC Region 4) | |
| License number: | GL-397 |
| Organization: | Mississippi Div Of Rad Health |
| Reporting | |
| Agreement State | |
| Time - Person (Reporting Time:+850.63 h35.443 days <br />5.063 weeks <br />1.165 months <br />) | |
| Opened: | Benjamin Culpepper 15:38 Oct 13, 2017 |
| NRC Officer: | Richard Smith |
| Last Updated: | Dec 19, 2017 |
| 53013 - NRC Website | |
Southern Recycling with Agreement State | |
WEEKMONTHYEARENS 530132017-09-08T05:00:0008 September 2017 05:00:00
[Table view]Agreement State Agreement State Report - Loss or Theft of Licensed Nuclear Material 2017-09-08T05:00:00 | |