The following information was provided by the
Iowa Department of Public Health (
Iowa HHS) via email:
During the night or early morning of January 31, 2023 - February 1, 2023, a Troxler portable nuclear gauge (model 3430, containing 9 millicuries Cs-137 and 44 millicuries Am-241:Be) was stolen from the truck of a licensee in Shellsburg, Iowa. It was reported that the employee had an early morning nuclear job on the day of February 1, 2023, in which he took the device home. Upon the early morning of February 1, 23, when the employee went to leave for the job, he discovered that the truck had been broken into. Items in the cab and all materials' testing equipment in the bed of the truck had been stolen, including the licensed portable nuclear gauge.
The cause is still under investigation. Corrective actions will be determined.
The Licensee notified the local sheriff's office. Iowa HHS will follow-up to support the response and provide assistance as needed and will update this event as they investigate.
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