The following information was provided by the
Illinois Emergency Management Agency (the Agency) via email:
On November 10, 2024, GE Healthcare reportedly shipped two vials containing 20.0 mCi of I-123 each from their Arlington Heights, IL facility to RLS USA in Sunnyvale, CA. The UN2915 Yellow-II package was loaded at the United Cargo facility in Chicago, IL onto United Flight UA 1878. Although tracking details indicate the package was received by United upon arrival at the San Francisco terminal, the package could not be located for pickup. At this time, a search at the Chicago facility has confirmed it is not on site and the San Francisco United facility claims they do not have the package. As a result, GE Healthcare declared the package as missing on 11/12/2024 and reported the matter to the Agency. The California program staff were notified as well. The vials are shipped within shielded containers and have currently decayed to approximately 1.0 mCi each. There is no indication of damage, intentional theft, or diversion. The quantity of radioactive material present would not be useful for illicit intent.
Illinois Item Number: IL240027
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