The following information was received from the State of
Texas via email:
On June 27, 2018, the Agency [Texas Department of State Health Services] was notified by the licensee's corporate radiation safety officer (CRSO) that one of his radiography crew had experienced a source disconnect. The crew was using a QSA 880D exposure device containing a 113.1 Curie iridium - 192 source. After completing the first shot on a new location on the pipeline, the crew could not get the source to return to the exposure device. The crew contacted the CRSO and set up new barriers at 2 millirem. The CRSO and a second individual qualified for source retrieval arrived at the site at 1743 hours0.0202 days <br />0.484 hours <br />0.00288 weeks <br />6.632115e-4 months <br />. The retrieval team (RT) surveyed the guide tube and determined the source was in the collimator. The RT removed the guide tube from the exposure device and removed the camera from the area. Using a set of long tongs, the guide tube was removed from the pipe and the source slid down the guide tube until the connector was exposed. They could see the drive cable had broken near the connector. The source was shielded with bags of lead shot. The CRSO disconnected the broken drive cable from the source pigtail and connected the pigtail to a new drive cable that had been installed on the camera. The source was retracted to the shielded position in the camera. The camera and crank out device and drive cable will be sent to the manufacturer for inspection. No overexposures occurred as a result of this event. Additional information will be provided as it is received in accordance with SA-300.
Texas Incident # - 9590