The following was received via phone notification from the State of
Nebraska Department of Radiological Health (NDRH):
On January 22, 2020, the NDRH received notification in the mail that during the annual survey, the Gateway Mall identified that 2 self luminous signs were missing and 7 signs that were removed during construction were unaccounted for. These signs contained tritium (H3), originally in the amount of 11.5 Curies each.
NDRH is going to follow-up on this event.
* * * UPDATE ON 1/23/2020 AT 1032 EST FROM DEB WILSON TO ANDREW WAUGH * * *
It was identified that eight of the tritium signs contained 11.5 Curies each and one of the signs contained 20 Curies. The Gateway Mall will follow up with the construction company to verify whether the signs have been properly disposed of as well as double checking with the maintenance shop to see if the report of the missing signs had been made in error.
Notified R4DO (Silvia), ILTAB (email), and NMSS Events (email).
* * * RETRACTION ON 1/23/2020 AT 1434 EST FROM DEB WILSON TO THOMAS KENDZIA * * *
"Gateway Mall General Manager was able to contact the construction company. It was determined that the signs had been removed from service by the construction company and stored at Gateway Mall. Signs reported missing in the maintenance shop were located as well. All nine signs have been located and accounted for."
Notified R4DO (Silvia), ILTAB (email), and NMSS Events (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