Event Notification Report for January 23, 2003

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - STOLEN TROXLER MOISTURE DENSITY GAUGE

The following information was received from the Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Radiation Control (Texas incident I-7973):

"The nuclear gauge was stolen last night. (January 23-24, 2003). It was stolen from an Econoline van parked overnight at an apartment complex. The gauge was locked inside its case and was inside a storage compartment in the cargo area of the locked van. Access was gained by breaking out the windows of the van.

"The gauge operator [DELETED] is uncertain of the exact time of the theft. He went out to dinner in his private vehicle and did not notice any problem with the van when he returned home at approximately 8 o'clock in the evening. However, when he stepped outside at 4:30 am to warm up his wife's car, he noticed the Duncanville [Texas] police were on the scene. Three vans parked within about 150 feet of each other, including his, had been burglarized in a similar fashion. One van belonged to an air conditioning company.

"The thief took many other items from the van including concrete testing equipment, a coat, measuring tape and a couple of buckets of tools. The gauge and its case were taken. The case is clearly labeled with the company's name and phone number. Inside the case is a full set of paperwork identifying the gauge, a current leak test, and other documents containing the company's letterhead. The police report number is 03000589. The RSO notified Troxler in Arlington [Texas] of the theft."

The gauge is a Troxler Model # 3430, Serial # 031693, 40 millicuries Am-241/Be, 8 millicuries Cs-137.

INADVERTENT INITIATION OF ONE EMERGENCY SIREN

"Inadvertent initiation of one emergency siren in Claiborne County. The Claiborne County Civil Defense Director has issued a 'No Emergency Message' to four local radio stations. This call-in is made to the NRC because of possible interest by the public. No additional actions are anticipated."

The NRC Resident Inspector has been notified.

AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - CONTAMINATED PACKAGE

The following is taken from a facsimile from the State of California:

"On 1/24/03 the RSO [Radiation Safety Officer] @ IPL [Isotope Products Laboratories] reported their receipt of a contaminated package. The package had been picked up from LAX & delivered to IPL on 1/23 @ 2:25 pm by Kamino Int'l Transport, 2580 Santa Fe, Redondo Beach, contact person [DELETED]. The package was wiped upon receipt, and received the results approximately 4:30 pm. The RSO was notified the next morning. The contamination appears to be H-3, although the licensee needs to perform an energy calibration on their liquid scintillation counter to verify both this and their quantification of the package wipes. It appears that all sides of the package were contaminated, at up to approximately 100,000 dpm/wipe. The latest wipes measured up to approximately 40,000 dpm/wipe.

"The package came from a company in Switzerland called RC Tritec AG, who is a distributor for a Russian company (unknown name at this time). IPL believes that the box was trans-shipped, & was never actually at Tritec, but they're still trying to get Lufthansa's paperwork. IPL is also trying to get info on the Russian company.

"IPL had the delivery truck return to IPL, & they found a small area of contamination, about 12 X 10 inches, on the carpet, where the package was located, of about 800 dpm/wipe. After vacuuming, they got nothing. About 11 other wipes in the truck were negative. They checked the driver's gloves- there's no removable contamination. All wipes @ IPL's Shipping Dept were negative. They think there was at least one other package on the truck that was destined for an electronics company, but they're still trying to get info on that. There was at least one other package for IPL on the truck that was not contaminated (they're checking to see if it had come from the same Russian company).

"Note: Assuming that the contamination is H-3, the dose consequences of 100,000 dpm/wipe are approximately equivalent to the dose consequences of 2.5 dpm/wipe of Cs-137."

* * * RETRACTION ON 02/26/03 BY GREGER TO CROUCH * * *

This retraction was e-mailed to the Headquarters Operations Officer on 1/29/03 but not posted until 02/26/03 due to administrative oversight:

"This package was not contaminated with H-3 as initially thought. The substance causing the liquid scintillation counts was a non-radioactive phosphorescent material that got on the package at the shippers facility. This was confirmed by holding the wipes overnight in a dark environment before counting them. THIS REPORT IS BEING RETRACTED."

Notified Fred Brown (NMSS), Eric Leeds (NMSS) and David Graves (R4DO) via e-mail.