The following information was provided by the state of
Florida via email:
[The licensee's Radiation Safety Officer] (RSO) called at 1946 EDT to report a stolen Troxler Soil Moisture Density Gauge. The Pacifica technician found the chain and padlock were cut. The initial discovery was at approximately 0830 EDT, but was not reported to the RSO until later in the day. When asked why the incident was reported nearly 12 hours1.388889e-4 days <br />0.00333 hours <br />1.984127e-5 weeks <br />4.566e-6 months <br /> later, [the RSO] stated that the technician had a morning exam, and that he was afraid of losing his job. Additionally, since [the RSO] had not notified Law Enforcement at the time of his report, he was instructed to do so. Finally, [the RSO] was instructed to email this [Florida Bureau of Radiation Control] Duty Officer with the report number, along with his description of the event.
Incident number: FL22-099
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