The following was received from the state of
Nebraska via email:
During annual inventory, it was noticed by Siouxland Ethanol that one device was missing. The device was not scheduled to be removed or replaced. Part of the mounting hardware and a small portion of the sign casing remained, but the rest of the sign was no longer intact or accounted for. [An employee] checked with maintenance who reported that they had not removed the sign and offered that by the look of what was left it looked like it may have been hit by an implement and the remainder cleaned up by staff not knowing it contained radioactive material. The sign is presumed to have been thrown away in the trash and taken to the landfill. It will be replaced with an LED. No further follow-up is needed. We spoke to them about the need for these signs to be properly disposed of as quite a few in their inventory are nearing the end of their useful life and directed them to where they could find disposal instructions.
Nebraska Item Number: NE210005
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