The following information was obtained from the state of
Washington via email:
Today, April 30, 2018, the Washington State Department of Health Radioactive Materials Section was notified of a lost portable gauge. The gauge owner, Intermountain Materials Testing (WA RadMat licensee I0578), notified the Emergency Response Duty Officer at 10:15 am [PDT] about the lost gauge. The company RSO was notified of the incident by an employee earlier today. The employee determined the gauge (CPN MC3 S/N M300405776) was missing at approximately 2:35 pm [PDT] Friday, April 27, 2018. This gauge has a 10 mCi (370MBq) Cs-137 source and 50 mCi (1.85 GBq) Am-241 source. The employee searched for the gauge until 4:30 pm [PDT] before he notified the local Richland, WA Police Department. The gauge was presumed to be left on the ground at a job site near the intersection of Queensgate Dr. and Gala Way in Richland, WA, because it was determined to not be in its storage location at a different job site. This incident has been given the Incident ID WA-18-015 and is reportable under 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(ii) and is a 30 day reportable event. Follow up will be supplied as needed.
Washington State Incident Number WA-18-015
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