The following information was received from the state of
South Carolina via email:
On March 11, 2020, the Department [South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC)] was notified by the licensee at approximately 0815 [EDT] that a portable gauging device had been stolen from the licensee's storage location at 19 Highway 90 East, Little River. The gauging device is an Instrotek Model 3500 [moisture density gauge], serial number 722. This device contains 10 milliCuries of Cs-137 and 40 milliCuries of Am-241:Be. The licensee stated that the theft has been reported to local law enforcement. SCDHEC has notified the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division's Fusion Center.
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