The following report was received from the
California Department of Public Health via email:
On Monday, January 17, 2022, the licensee's radiation safety officer reported the theft of a CPN MC-1DR (MD30406938) containing sealed sources of Cs-137 (10 mCi) and Am-241:Be (50 mCi), leak tested 4/2021. The theft occurred overnight between Friday and Saturday 1/14/2022 - 1/15/2022 at an authorized gauge user's (AU) residential home. The AU returned home urgently on Friday due to a family member's illness. The AU did chain the gauge case to the door inside the truck cab but failed to lock the truck before entering his home. The AU discovered that the gauge case was missing early Saturday morning while the truck was parked in the driveway of the home. The CPN nuclear gauge handle was locked to prevent operation, the gauge was locked in its transport case, and the transport case was chained to the door inside the truck cab, but the chain was cut and case/gauge was taken, apparently the only item stolen. The gauge and case had a company name and phone number label adhered to it in case of loss or theft. A police report was filed with the Corona police department (22-03047). The licensee will submit a lost/reward ad in the local paper/website and gather additional information for the follow up investigation.
California Event Number: 011722
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