The following report was received from the
Texas Department of State Health Services (the Department) via phone and email:
On November 1, 2024, the Department was notified by the licensee that it discovered it had a missing general licensed device during an inventory verification exercise. The device, which is a P2042 static eliminator, has not been accounted for as of December 4, 2023. This discovery was made by the EHS technician. The technician conducted an internal exercise to verify the inventory of these devices and discovered that there was a missing device. The technician contacted the device manufacturer who advised the licensee to contact the Department. The device contains a 5 millicurie (original activity - around October 2023) polonium-210 sealed source. The licensee stated the device did not pose a risk of exposure to any individual. The licensee searched for the device, but was unable to locate it. The licensee has since made several administrative controls to avoid such a situation in future.
Texas Incident Number: 10139
Texas NMED Number: TX240040
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