The following information was excerpted from an email received from the State of Kansas:
The licensee is reporting that an ionizer containing a radioactive source (Model Number P-2063-1000) was lost. The licensee currently has 3 other ionizers of the same model. The device radioactive source was Polonium-210 (SN: A2KT674) with an activity of 31.5 mCi and was last leak tested on 9/20/2016. The device was checked out by the licensee and placed within the secure test floor while testing electrical devices at the Integra Technologies facility. The missing device use was last logged on 8/25/2017. The licensee believes that their maintenance department mistakenly threw the device away. Upon discovering that the device was missing, the licensee searched their facility several times over without finding the device. The prevention for further loss is that the remaining 3 units will be mounted in permanent locations using security screws so they cannot be removed by unauthorized personnel.
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