The following report is a synopsis of an email received from the
Florida Bureau of Radiation Control:
During an inventory conducted on August 2, 2019, the University of Florida discovered that a Ni-63 source was improperly sent to a scrap metal processor. The Ni-63 source (serial number: 3270) had an activity of 13.5 mCi.
Florida Incident Number: FL19-098
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