The following report was received from the State of
California via email:
On 11/09/18, RSO [Radiation Safety Officer] at Alliance Healthcare Services contacted the California OES [Office of Emergency Services] to report possible loss of control of radioactive materials that are located in one of their mobile PET [Positron Emission Tomography] Coaches stationed at the Feather River Hospital in Paradise, CA, due to a wildfire. A huge wildfire is still burning and spreading in the area and the extent of the damage is unknown, although the town of Paradise is reported to have been evacuated and heavily damaged in the fire. The PET Coach is believed to have contained Cs-137 (210 microCuries), Ba-133 (260 microCuries), and Ge-68 (3 milliCuries). RHB [California Radiation Health Branch] will be following up with the licensee once the area becomes accessible for inspection. This event report is being filed on the information that is known now about the extent of the fire and damage, and will be updated as appropriate when more complete information becomes available.
CA 5010 Number: 110918
- * * EVENT RETRACTED ON 11/15/2018 AT 1700 EST BY ROBERT GREGER TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ * * *
The event is retracted via e-mail:
The CA licensee and Radiologic Health Branch personnel have accessed the fire devastated town of Paradise in northern CA, and have determined that the PET coach and its radioactive material contents were undamaged in the recent wildfire. The radioactive sources were accounted for.
Notified the R4DO (Haire) and NMSS (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