The following information was provided by the
Florida Bureau of Radiation Control (
BRC) via email:
BRC Tallahassee received notification this afternoon from QC Laboratories, Inc. that tracking has been lost on a 16.8 curie (below Cat 2) Iridium 192 sealed source. The source was shipped out of country (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) and was on return shipment. Per [the common carrier]: 'Our records reflect that this package was tendered to [the common carrier] on March 16 with the expectation of delivery by 1030 EDT on March 17, barring delays in Customs. These records indicate that this shipment arrived at our port of entry at our central sorting facility in Memphis on March 17 and went into the customs clearance process. After Customs delays resulting from clearance paperwork issues, the paperwork was resolved. Customs clearance was completed on March 27, and the package was removed from the cage; however, we are unable to verify its status past that point.'
Florida Incident Number: FL23-045
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A 'Category 3' LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial
gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level
gauges, dredger
gauges, conveyor
gauges and spinning pipe
gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf