The following information was provided by the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (the Department) via email:
At approximately 0715 MST on November 28, 2022, the Department was contacted by the [Company Radiation Safety Officer] CRSO of Kleinfelder, Inc. (CO 958-01) to inform the Department that two Troxler 3430 (SN 35349 & SN 35335) moisture density gauges were discovered to be stolen from their temporary job site. Each gauge had sealed sources containing not more than 9 mCi of Cs-137 and 44 mCi of Am-241:Be or 66 micro curies of Cf-252. An authorized user arrived at the temporary job site around 0530 MST to pick up supplies when they noticed the door to the container express (conex) box was open. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that both gauges were missing. The site was secured by a security fence and under video surveillance, and that footage is currently under review. The thieves broke the exterior lock to the conex box door and they broke a lock to a job box in the conex box that contained both gauges in their locked transport cases. The job box was also bolted to the ground but those bolts were left intact. The CRSO estimates that the gauges were last seen/used on November 23rd or 24th, but the date of the theft is unclear at this time. Additionally, multiple other contracted companies were targeted in this theft that presumably occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Colorado Event Report ID No.: CO220040
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