The following information was provided by the
Washington State Department of Health via email:
A positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) unit with a Ge-68 sealed source (11 millicurie) was removed improperly from a medical facility in WA (Radia Imaging Center) and shipped to an unlicensed facility (MAK Heathcare in Woodstock, IL). Leak tests are in process to verify no spread of contamination. Currently, the plan is to ship the PET/CT scanner back to source manufacturer, Eckhert & Ziegler, in Burbank, CA on Friday, 10/27/2023.
WA Incident Report Number: WA-23-028
See NRC Event Notification number 56814 for a parallel report made by Illinois.
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