The following is a summary of the phone call with the state of Oregon:
On March 5, 2019, the licensee realized that a 9.4 Curie Ir-192 industrial radiography source was missing when the scheduled shipment was not received on March 4, 2019. Last known location was Memphis, TN on March 1, 2019.
- * * UPDATE AT 1110 EDT ON 3/13/2019 FROM DARYL LEON TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ * * *
The following report was received via e-mail:
On March 11 at 11:38 AM (PDT), the licensee (OWL) emailed and stated that the lost package and source have been found after an extended telecon (1 hour1.157407e-5 days <br />2.777778e-4 hours <br />1.653439e-6 weeks <br />3.805e-7 months <br />) with the carrier. No location given in email but a statement that [the common carrier] had held the shipment because they needed a copy of the shipping papers to send it on to its destination (QSA in Baton Rouge, LA). OWL emailed a copy of the shipping papers to [the common carrier] and the package was released to continue on to QSA.
On March 12 at 9:15 AM (PDT), [the state of Oregon] contacted the licensee (OWL) by phone. The package and source were found by [the common carrier] in their Memphis, TN shipping center. [The common carrier] did not have shipping papers for the package when received in Memphis and placed it into their 'Overgoods' department where 'lost dangerous goods' are taken and held if there is a paperwork issue preventing a shipment from continuing on its way. The package in this case was released on March 11th as previously indicated and arrived at QSA in Baton Rouge at 10:02 AM (CDT).
Notified the R4DO (Groom), and NMSS Events Resource and ILTAB (via e-mail).
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Note: This device is assigned an
IAEA Category 3 value based on the actual radioactivity of the source, not on the device type. (Reference
IAEA RG-G-1.9)