The following is a summary of a discussion with the licensee:
On approximately January 29, 2019, MRIGlobal in Kansas City, Missouri determined that they had lost a 15 milliCurie Nickel-63 source contained in an Electron Capture Detector (ECD - SN Agilent Technologies - U-2802).
The detector was taken out of service in 2015, though an employee continued to note that leak testing had been done on the detector since then. During the performance of an inventory in December 2018, they noticed that the Serial Number did not match and attempted to locate the detector. The facility was closed over the holiday season, but the licensee searched after returning from the break. It was previously believed that the detector had been given to staff to be placed in a storage area. During their search, the licensee found e-mails stating the detector had been taken out of service. Based on the e-mails, the licensee believes the detector has been missing since 2015. The licensee is not certain of the current location of the ECD.
During an attempt to locate the source, the licensee checked in the safety storage room, the old radiation storage shed, and other file cabinets and drawers in the facility. There is no risk from exposure due to the loss of the source.
The licensee notified the Region 3 materials inspector (Tran).
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.