Eurofins Eaton Analytical, Inc., (EEA) is reporting two lost
ECDs [Electron Capture Detector] serial# B794 and A10856 that were listed under the General License GL-65970 held by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.
A notice to the NRC was sent on November 25, 2015 stating that the devices under General License GL-65970 were transferred to EEA. On February 4, 2016 it was brought to our attention by NRC Region III's Material Safety Licensing Branch, that ECDs, Serial# B794 and A10856 should be in our possession. After a thorough search of the facility and records we could not locate these ECDs.
(i) Lost device ECD, Serial# B794, Model# 03-917440-00, isotope Ni-63, activity 15 mCi, was manufactured by Varian Associates, Inc.
(ii) Lost device ECD, Serial# A10856, Model# 02-0001972-00, isotope Ni-63, activity 15 mCi, was manufactured by Varian Associates, Inc.
(iii) Both ECDs were not located in a recent inventory check.
(iv) Both ECDs were more than likely returned to Varian for disposal before 2008.
(v) No known exposures have been reported from this ECD at this time.
(vi) [EEA] performed a thorough search of the facility and in-house records. In addition, [EEA] attempted to contact Varian. In 2010 Varian was sold off to Agilent and Buker Corp. Buker Corp then sold off their portion of Varian Gas Chromatography equipment to Scion in 2014. All three companies were contacted in order to determine who currently holds the Varian ECD records. None of the companies contacted claimed to hold the records.
(vii) [EEA] now maintains a list of ECDs showing each ECD location. The list is maintained by the laboratory and monitored by the RSO.
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