The following information was received via email:
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (the Agency) was contacted on 8/16/22 by GE Healthcare to advise that a radiopharmaceutical package containing one vial of Iodine-123 had not arrived at a Rochester, NY radiopharmacy as scheduled. The package contained one vial of Iodine-123 with an activity of 20 millicuries at the time of shipment (shipment date 8/11/2022). The last confirmed scan was 8/11/2022, at 1721 EDT, at the Greater Rochester International Airport. The package now contains approximately 0.0206 microcuries. The licensee is in continuous communication with the carrier, who is still actively looking for the package. This matter has a 30-day reporting requirement to the US NRC and is being phoned into the NRC HOO under event number IL220029. There is no indication of intentional theft or diversion, and the contents would not be useful for illicit intent.
Illinois Reference Number: IL220029
- * * UPDATE FROM GARY FORSEE TO LLOYD DESOTELL AT 1658 EDT ON 11/04/2022 * * *
The following information was provided by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency via email:
The lost pharmaceutical package has been located and delivered.
Notified R3DO (Ruiz). Notified NMSS Events Notification and ILTAB via email.
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