The following information was received from the State of
Arizona via email:
On April 8, 2014, the Agency was contacted by the Licensee who indicated that an employee and a Troxler Gauge was missing. The licensee was informed around 6:00 AM that the employee did not show up on a job on the Indian Reservation. The licensee has notified both the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. The gauge is a Troxler Model 3430, Serial Number 7052 containing 9 millicuries of Cesium-137 and 45 millicuries of Am-241. The individual was discovered to have had a diabetic coma and the gauge was still with the individual and the licensee is sending another operator to retrieve the gauge. The individual is in Gallup, NM.
The investigation into this event is ongoing.
The U.S. NRC, New Mexico, and Arizona Governor's Office have been notified of this event.
Arizona First Notice: 14-006
- * * UPDATE AT 1930 EDT ON 4/9/14 FROM AUBREY GODWIN TO S. SANDIN * * *
The Troxler Gauge has been recovered and is in the licensee's possession at their Flagstaff, AZ office.
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