Radioactive Material Lost
in Texas Shipping: Location Unknown

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - SOURCE LOST DURING TRANSPORT
U.S.
NRC Report
March 27, 2012
The State of Texas provided the following information via email:
"On March 22, 2012, the Agency was notified by a licensee that a 350
millicurie (13 GBq) Americium 241-Beryllium source was lost during
shipment. The source was picked up in Fort Worth, Texas by a common
carrier for delivery to Houston, TX on March 14, 2012. When the source
arrived in Houston, TX it was discovered that the source should have
been delivered to the company's Corpus Christi, TX location. The common
carrier contacted the licensee in Fort Worth and they agreed to have
the source sent to the Corpus Christi location. On March 20, 2012, the
licensee in Corpus Christi contacted the licensee in Fort Worth and
stated that they had not received the source. The licensee in Fort
Worth contacted the common carrier and was informed by them that they
could not locate the source, but they were looking for it. On March 22,
2012, at 1420 hours the Fort Worth licensee contacted this Agency to
report that they had decided to report the source as lost.
"The Agency contacted the carrier and they confirmed that the package
was loaded on the truck going from Houston to Corpus Christi. They
stated that the truck stopped in San Antonio, TX prior to going to
Houston. The common carrier is still looking for the source. They
stated that all of their transportation centers have been notified of
the lost package. Additional information will be provided as it is
received in accordance with SA-300.
Texas Incident #: I-8941.
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
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DW Hall is Editor and Writer for ProdigyNews.com