At 1400 on July 26, 2012, the Agency [Texas Department of Health] was notified by the licensee that a Humboldt Scientific Inc. (HSI) Model 5001
moisture density gauge was missing and suspected as
stolen by a company employee. The employee, a company truck, 2012 white Toyota Tacoma, and the
moisture density gauge have been missing all day. The worker failed to report to a job site this morning and his wife reported that she had no contact with him yesterday. Local law enforcement was notified. The
gauge contained 10 millicuries of
cesium-137 and 40 millicuries of
americium-241.
The State of Texas event number for this event is I-8972.
- * * UPDATE AT 1241 EDT ON 7/27/12 FROM CHRIS MOORE TO PETE SNYDER * * *
At 0830 on July 27, 2012, the Agency [Texas Department of Health] was notified by the licensee that the Humboldt Scientific Model 5001 Moisture Density gauge reported stolen on July 26, 2012, had been recovered. The licensee stated that the missing worker called the company and reported that the truck with gauge was parked at his residence. The licensee recovered the gauge. The licensee stated that the gauge was still locked and stowed properly in the truck. The licensee stated that an inspection and radiation survey of the moisture density gauge was found to be normal. The employee was fired.
Notified the R4DO(Drake), ILTAB(Johnson), FSME Events Resource(Email), and Mexico.
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