The following information was provided by the
New York City (NYC) Department of Health via email:
The licensee reported a loss of licensed material in quantity more than 1000 times the value in 10 CFR part 20 appendix C.
The radiation safety officer for New York University (NYU) Langone Hospitals (NYC license number: 75-2955-01) reported on the phone that they misplaced a shipment of Lu-177 for medical use. The material was delivered yesterday morning [03/24/25], but this morning they could not locate it. They think it may have been put in the trash, and they are following up with their waste company to try to track it down. The activity was about 200 millicuries as of yesterday.
A written report is expected with more information from the licensee.
- * * UPDATE ON 03/31/2025 AT 1317 EDT FROM ERIK FINKELSTEIN TO OSSY FONT * * *
The following summary was provided by the New York City (NYC) Department of Health via email:
The licensee located the material inside a large garbage dumpster on their property. They will be working to retrieve it.
Notified R1DO (Bickett), NMSS Events Notifications (email), ILTAB (email), and CNSC (Canada) (email).
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