The following information was received from the State of
Ohio via email:
A local Health District employee had a Niton Xlp 300 XRF with a 50 mCi Cadmium-109 source stolen overnight on Saturday, September 2, 2017. It was in the car in their garage and someone came in and took it. The employee had worked late at a job site that day and brought the gauge home instead of returning to the office. Employee's garage door did not close for some reason that night and they were unaware that it was open when they went to bed. There were several other cars broken into that night in employee's neighborhood. A report was filed with local police department. Device has not yet been recovered.
Source/Radioactive Material: Sealed Source; Radionuclide: Cd-109; Activity: 50mCi; Device Name: X-RAY Fluorescence (XRF); Model Number: Niton XLp 300; Manufacturer: Thermo Scientific Analytical; Serial Number: 98149.
Ohio Item Number: OH170007
The following report was received via e-mail:
Note: According to device owner, the manufacturer told them that this incident was NOT reportable to their regulatory agency. The owner reported the event on 11/6/17 as a result of more research on their part.
UPDATE: The gauge was found by a member of the public in their yard, where it had apparently been abandoned. The local health district was notified based on contact information on case. The case was still locked when found. The device is now back in the possession of the local health district as of 11/27/17.
Notified the R3DO (Duncan), NMSS Events Resources and CNSC (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