The following information was provided State of
Louisiana via email:
On 09/02/2015, the RSO for A&O [Alpha-Omega Services, Inc.] called in a mis-delivery/wrong delivery of 11.6 Ci Ir-192 source intended for the Radiation Oncology Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital (SMH) in Washington, DC. SMH is a client/customer of A&O in association with ELEKTA. SMH purchased and attempted to possess the radioactive source under a license NRC 08-07398-03. A&O packaged the Ir-192 source and addressed it to SMH, Dept. of Radiation Oncology, 5255 Loughboro Road NW, Washington, DC 20016. The source was shipped from the [A&O] Vinton, LA address to SMH on August 31, 2015. However, [common carrier] delivered the source to Howard University Hospital, Cancer Center, 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20060 [on September 2, 2015].
Common carrier was notified of the delivery error and took possession of the source on September 3, 2015 and delivered to the proper address [SMH] that day. The source shielding and shipping container was intact during the incident. It was not damaged nor was the container opened until it reached the final destination.
Source information: Elekta Model 105.002 source: 11.6 Ci Ir-192, Serial Number - D36F5755
LA Event Report ID No.: LA-150015; T165946
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Note: This device is assigned an
IAEA Category 3 value based on the actual radioactivity of the source, not on the device type. (Reference
IAEA RG-G-1.9)