The following was reported by the
California Department of Public Health, Radiologic Health Branch (
RHB) via email:
On 09/12/2023, RHB received a call from [the] Principal Engineer, and President of A3GEO, Inc., regarding the loss of their moisture density gauge. They stated that on 09/12/2023 at 1445 PDT, the radiation safety officer (RSO) of A3GEO parked his 2001 Dodge Dakota Pickup Truck, containing InstroTek Model 3500 Xplorer with serial number 503 moisture density gauge, at the corner of Ridge Road and Euclid Avenue in Berkeley, CA. The RSO went into the corner market, and as he was exiting the corner store, he saw a man driving away his truck. He tried to stop him by running behind the truck, but he was unable to stop him from driving off. He immediately reported the incident to the Berkeley Police Department. RHB advised the licensee to place an ad in a local Berkeley newspaper offering a reward for return of the stolen gauge.
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