The following information was provided by the State of
Illinois via email:
The Radiation Safety Officer of Wayne County Well Surveys contacted the Agency [Illinois Emergency Management Agency] on Friday morning, October 16, 2015, to report the loss of a 3 Ci Am-241/Be source. A description of the container which holds the source was provided as well as anticipated radiation levels, markings and the route along which was followed when the container was most likely lost. The licensee had conducted visual surveys along this route with no success. The Agency dispatched teams with appropriate radiation detection instrumentation to traverse the route. The search is currently underway. Local law enforcement and emergency managers have also been advised of the matter.
The RSO last verified possession of the source on June 2, 2015 during a leak test. The search is being concentrated on several rural roads between Fairfield and Decatur, IL. The loss is believed to have happened sometime in the middle of September.
Source information: QSA Global; model number AMNK8208; serial number 82989B
IL Report Number: IL15020
- * * UPDATE FROM DAREN PERRERO TO HOWIE CROUCH AT 1528 EST ON 4/7/16 * * *
On March 4, 2016, the State was informed that the source was returned, intact, by a citizen to the licensee. The source was still locked in its transport case and was not tampered with. The licensee swiped the source with negative results.
The State of Illinois considers this event closed.
Notified R3DO (Riemer) and NMSS Events resource (email).
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 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 some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial
gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level
gauges, dredger
gauges, conveyor
gauges and spinning pipe
gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf