On 04/02/08 at 0400 PDT, the Authorized
Gauge User checked out a
Troxler Model #3440, S/N 30441, from his company and was enroute to the jobsite when he received a call that the job was cancelled. He went home to have breakfast at 0430 PDT. At 0500 PDT, he found that the chains securing the device for transport had been cut and the
gauge was missing from the transport vehicle parked at the users home.
The gauge contains two sources: 9 mCi Cs-137 and 44 mCi Am-241:Be. The last leak test was performed on 03/04/08. The licensee notified the Nevada Highway Patrol and Las Vegas Metro Police of the theft. A contributing factor to the theft may have been the lack of two tangible barriers securing the gauge.
NV Event Report ID No.: NV-NV080002
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.