The following report was received from the
Texas Department of State Health Services (the Department) via phone and email:
On November 18, 2024, the Department received notification from the licensee of a missing self-luminous exit sign. The licensee made the discovery on October 15, 2024, during a semiannual inventory of radioactive sources verification exercise. The device, which contains about 20 curies of tritium in gaseous form, is a Betalux, Model 171 with serial number C207471.
The licensee believes the sign, which was located at the back of a building, was dislodged during Hurricane Beryl on July 8, 2024. The licensee stated that two possible scenarios on what might have occurred when the sign was removed. The licensee stated the sign may have been picked up together with the large amount of debris collected and cleared out for disposal by the cleaning crews following the storm. The other possibility is that the sign may have been blown away off campus by hurricane force winds.
The licensee stated that there are currently no known exposures to persons at this time due to the loss of this device.
Additional information will be provided in accordance with SA-300.
Texas Incident Number: 10145
Texas NMED Number: TX240044
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