The following report was received via e-mail from the state of Texas:
On March 6, 2019, the licensee notified the Agency [Texas Department of State Health Services] that someone had broken into one of their vehicles at an oil well drilling site northeast of Odessa, Texas, and stole a shipping/transport container with a bottle of approximately 7 milliCuries of iodine-131 tracer material (liquid form) and a box containing radioactive waste (i.e. gloves, rags). A number of other items (computer and other equipment) were also taken. The licensee has reviewed the initial information and is of the opinion, at this time, that it appears the material was not the target of the break-in but was grabbed along with other items of value. The licensee notified local law enforcement. The tracer material was scheduled to be used late in the day on March 5, 2019, but the schedule was changed at the last minute for it to be injected the next morning. The licensee's employee left the company truck containing the material at the site overnight, the vehicle was locked. There were no workers at the site overnight. The licensee has employees searching around the well site, along the road, and other nearby areas it may have been discarded.
Event Location: Approximately six miles South of Odessa, Texas.
Texas Incident #9661
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