The following information was received via E-mail:
On 1/19/21, The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) contacted the Radiologic Health Branch (RHB) to report an incident involving five stolen moisture / density gauges. The initial report to Cal OES was made by the Santa Clara Fire Department. Upon receipt of the Cal OES incident report, RHB contacted the licensee and learned the following:
The licensee became aware of this theft on 1/19/21, when one of their staff members attempted to collect a gauge from the authorized storage unit located at 3033 Lafayette Street, Unit A133, in Santa Clara, CA. The licensee had five gauges stored at this location.
According to the Public Storage facility personnel, the theft occurred late at night on Friday, 1/15/2021, when eight units were burglarized that day. The licensee stated that they did not receive any notification from the storage unit personnel regarding the theft on Friday. On 01/19/21, the licensee notified the Santa Clara Police Department of the theft (case number: 21-115042) and dispatchers were able to recover five transport cases near De La Cruz and Hwy 101 in Santa Clara, but the gauges were all missing.
The gauges that were stolen include:
1. CPN International MC-3, S/N M380709085, 50mCi of AmBe 241 and 10mCi of Cs 137
2. InstroTek MCE-3, S/N 30380, 50mCi of AmBe 241 and 10mCi of Cs 137
3. InstroTek MCE-3, S/N 30958, 50mCi of AmBe 241 and 10mCi of Cs 137
4. InstroTek Explorer 3500, S/N 3375, 44mCi of AmBe 241 and 11mCi of Cs 137
5. InstroTek Explorer 3500, S/N 3826, 44mCi of AmBe 241 and 11mCi of Cs 137
RHB will be following up on this investigation.
California 5010 Number: 011921
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