The following was received from the
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) via email:
On November 2, 2020, the Department received a call from a licensee about disposal of a sealed source device.
The licensee was getting ready to dispose of their device and was informed by their surplus department that it had been accidentally sold at a surplus auction on September 17, 2020. Sale information was retrieved from auction records on November 3, 2020, and the purchaser was located and contacted. The device had been delivered to the purchaser in Columbus, Ohio and the purchaser is working with the licensee to properly dispose of the device. The device is to be retrieved from Columbus, Ohio by the disposal company, but a date has not yet been set. The licensee will notify the Department when disposal arrangements have been finalized.
Nebraska Incident Number: NE200009.
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