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A report of a missing package containing 4.67 GBq of Xe-133 was reported to the Radiation Control Program in Massachusetts by the licensee Lantheus Medical Imaging at 3:12 pm on 05/30/13. The package was intended to be shipped, (on 4/30/13), to Cardinal Health in Duncansville, PA. Cardinal Health is a nuclear pharmacy. (The shipper) has been actively searching the Memphis facility over a 30 day period and has not found the package. They have scan records showing that the package did arrive, but no evidence that it has been shipped away. The search has been abandoned since approximately 5.7 half lives (half life of 5.243 days) have passed and the material will be radioactively inert in another 10 days. The Radiation Control Program will follow-up to determine the cause if one can be found.

• * * UPDATE AT 1352 EDT ON 5/31/2013 FROM KENATH TRAEGDE TO MARK ABRAMOVITZ * * *

For further clarification, the package was shipped on 04/24/13.  It was reported as missing to Lantheus Medical Imaging by Cardinal Health on 04/30/13.  The package was reported as missing to (the shipper) by Cardinal Health on 04/24/13.  Lantheus ran a trace on the tracking number and discovered there was no confirmation of delivery.  They then contacted (the shipper) on 04/30/13 to confirm the missing package.  (The shipper) confirmed the status.  So, there was a little over a 6 day delay from the date of shipment to the date of Lantheus had confirmation that the package was missing.

Lantheus Medical Imaging, working in concert with (the shipper), attempted to locate the package over the 30 day period and was unsuccessful. Lantheus reported the missing package to our Agency (Massachusetts Radiation Control Program) on 05/30/13 in fulfillment with Agency Regulation 120.281(A)(2), 'Reports of Stolen, Lost, or Missing Licensed Material or Registered Sources of Radiation,' which allows a 30 day period from the date of discovery for the licensee to report the event to us. The NRC equivalent is 10 CFR 20.2201(a)(1)(ii). The reported activity at the time of measurement (calibration) that was listed on the shipping record was 4.67 GBq on 04/24/13. Converting this to curies is 0.1262, or 126.2 millicurie. On the date and time of the day it was reported missing the Xe-133 would have decayed to a level of 1.85 GBq, or approximately 50 millicurie, confirming the information above. Notified the R1DO (Holody) and FSME Resources (via e-mail). 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