The following report was received from the
Illinois Emergency Management Agency via email:
On October 14, 2016, the licensee's RSO [Radiation Safety Officer] called to report a lost Am-241, 45 mCi source that was part of a wave generator manufactured on 12/2/1982. The manufacturer and model number of the wave generator and radioactive component are not known. It was noted as lost during a recent inventory. An exhaustive search of nearby laboratories and waste areas did not reveal any clues of its whereabouts. During a radioactive material inventory in March 2016, records show this source was identified and accounted for. Access to the storage room is strictly controlled. It is only speculation to how the source became missing. First, it is possible that the source was mistakenly shipped as part of the University's participation in the Source Collection and Threat Reduction (SCATR) program. A vendor for the SCATR program removed nearly 200 sealed sources in December 2015. It is possible that the Am-241 source was mistakenly included in this shipment and the March 2016 inventory was in error. Another possibility is that the source was misplaced by staff during the summer clean-up of 2016. Personnel were questioned about this likelihood but there was no recollection of moving or discarding of such a unit. Inquiries with staff and SCATR are ongoing.
IL Item Number: IL 16012
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