The following was received from the State of
Oklahoma via email:
Hi-Tech Testing Service, an Oklahoma industrial radiography licensee based in Mustang, Oklahoma, reports that they temporarily lost custody of an industrial radiography camera containing an iridium source. At about 1:40 PM today, the Hi-Tech RSO reported by phone to DEQ [Department of Environmental Quality] that while doing radiography overnight at a compressor station near Perkins, Oklahoma, radiographers unintentionally left the radiography camera (with source inside) at the site. The error was discovered this morning when an inspector from Hi-Tech's client found the camera at the site. The client contacted Hi-Tech, who recovered the camera and have it in their possession. They report no evidence that the camera was tampered with or that there was an overexposure involved. DEQ will do an investigation of the incident.
The above is very preliminary, based on phone reports from the licensee. It is basically all the information known to DEQ at this time. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 2" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 2 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 a short time (minutes to hours). It could possibly be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of hours to days. These sources are typically used in practices such as industrial gamma radiography, high dose rate
brachytherapy and medium dose rate
brachytherapy. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf