The following was received from the
Texas Department of State Health Services via email:
On June 11, 2022, the licensee's Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) reported that at approximately 1120 CDT the technicians performing routine (6 month) surveys discovered that a Ronan GS400 (SN: 7192CO) level/density gauge, containing 100 millicuries of cesium-137, that had been mounted on the side of a vessel was not there and neither was its mounting bracket. Some demolition work had been performed on areas of the unit but there was no work being done on that particular vessel. Repeated searches were conducted at the facility. The licensee has been contacting supervisors and employees but has had some difficulty since it is the weekend. The search and interviews of employees and the demolition contractor's employees will continue. The gauge was mounted on the first (lower) level and there is another mounted higher on the vessel. Therefore, the fact it had been removed had not been identified by operations prior to the physical survey. Further information will be provided as it is obtained in accordance with SA-300.
Texas Incident #: I- 9933
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