The following information was provided by the
Virginia Radioactive Materials Program (the Department) via email:
On July 26, 2024, at approximately 1440 EDT, the VDH [Virginia Department of Health] Office of Radiological Health was contacted by the radiation safety officer (by phone) from Molecular Imaging Services, Inc. to report a missing Co-57 reference source of 5.257 mCi. On July 25, the licensee discovered that a package that had contained the source was delivered on July 3, and was inadvertently disposed of in the trash. It was not known by the nuclear medicine staff until July 25, that the source had been delivered on July 3 and that their investigation determined that the unopened package was placed in the dumpster by the facility janitor. The licensee has confirmed that the dumpster was picked up on July 6 and has been disposed of in the Prince William County Sanitary Landfill.
The Department will follow up with an investigation.
Virginia Event Report ID No.: VA240003
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