The following is a summary from the
Illinois Emergency Management Agency via e-mail:
The Emergency Management Agency was contacted at approximately 1416 CDT on April 30, 2021, to report the loss of an industrial radiography camera containing 105 Ci of Ir-192. The device/source is believed to be in the possession of the common carrier and an active investigation is underway. There is no current indication of intentional theft or diversion.
The Licensee called to report that the common carrier had dropped off a package on April 30, 2021, at 1040 CDT which was supposed to contain a Spec 150 camera (S/N 439) with a 105 Ci Ir-192 source (s/n CD2901). The cardboard overpack was damaged and the box was empty. The device/source had been overnighted from Spec Industries in St. Rose, LA to Romeoville, Illinois. The State is reaching out to the common carrier and notifying the Tennessee program officials since it is possible the package was lost at the Memphis hub.
State Item Number: IL210012
Common Carrier Tracking Number: 166975368552
Notified: DHS SWO, DOE Operations Center, FEMA Operations Center, HHS Operations Center, CISA Central, USDA Operations Center, EPA Emergency Operations Center, FDA Emergency Operations Center (email), FEMA NWC (email), DHS Nuclear SSA (email), and FEMA NRCC SASC (email), CWMD Watch Desk (email).
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A 'Category 2' LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 2 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 a short time (minutes to hours). It could possibly be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of hours to days. These sources are typically used in practices such as industrial gamma radiography, high dose rate
brachytherapy and medium dose rate
brachytherapy. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf