The following is a summary of a phone call and email received from the
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (the Department):
The Department was informed that Elekta recently performed a source exchange on a High Dose-Rate Remote Afterloader belonging to OU Medicine, Inc. (the licensee) After installing the new source, Elekta packaged the old source (an Elekta microSelectron Model 106.990 S/N D36G9458, containing 2 Ci of Ir-192) and prepared it for shipping to Alpha-Omega Services in Vinton, LA for disposal. The package was picked up by the common carrier on January 5, 2021 and scanned into their tracking system.
On February 1, 2021, Elekta notified the licensee that the common carrier had informed them the package had not been scanned into any other common carrier facility after being picked up at OU Medicine. The common carrier considers the package lost. The Department will provide more information as it becomes available.
On February 11, 2021, received an email from the Department that the source has been delivered to Alpha-Omega.
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