The following information was provided by the State of
Florida Bureau of Radiation Control (
BRC) via email:
BRC received notification from [a representative of] Environmental Health and Safety for Florida A & M University, that a scintillation counter with an embedded Cs-137 external quench monitor source was improperly disposed of. [The representative] states the professor in charge of the laboratory requested the item's removal, and it was disposed of as a piece of retired equipment without recognizing the presence of the radioactive material. This error was identified by [the radiation safety officer on] 7/29/25. [The licensee] could not locate the serial number for the item.
The device is a Beckman Coulter Model number LS6500 and contains a 30 mCi Cs-137 source.
Florida Incident Number: FL25-079
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