The following is an excerpt from a report received from the State of Nevada:
At 1000 PDT on March 26, 2018, the State of Nevada Radiation Control Program was informed by Aztech Materials and Testing, LLC, that a Humboldt, Model 5001EZ, Serial Number 3491, containing 10 mCi of cesium-137 and 40 mCi americium-241:beryllium, was stolen from the licensee's vehicle. The gauge was secured with two locks in the back of a pickup truck. The State is following the incident and working with local authorities to develop a press release. Local law enforcement and the FBI have been notified. Follow-up information will be provided to NRC on the recovery of the stolen gauge and entered into NMED (Nuclear Material Events Database).
- * * UPDATE FROM JOHN FOLLETTE TO DONALD NORWOOD AT 1730 EDT ON 3/28/2018 * * *
The following information was received via E-mail:
The State of Nevada Radiation Control Program has been informed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that the stolen portable nuclear gauge has been recovered. Below is the notification:
'All items were recovered in a stolen vehicle (abandoned, no suspects located). Patrol officers will be releasing the items back to Aztech.'
The NMED report will also be updated.
Notified R4DO (Gaddy). Notified via E-mail ILTAB (Whitney) and NMSS Events Notification.
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