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Event Notification Report for December 31, 2019

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Operations Center

EVENT REPORTS FOR
12/30/2019 - 12/31/2019

EVENT NUMBERS
54459

Agreement State
Event Number: 54459
Rep Org: MA RADIATION CONTROL PROGRAM
Licensee: QSA GLOBAL, INC
Region: 4
City: HONOLULU   State: HI
County:
License #: 12-8361
Agreement: N
Docket:
NRC Notified By: JOSHUA DAEHLER
HQ OPS Officer: BRIAN LIN
Notification Date: 12/31/2019
Notification Time: 18:00 [ET]
Event Date: 12/31/2019
Event Time: 16:45 [EST]
Last Update Date: 12/31/2019
Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
Person (Organization):
JOSEPH DEBOER (R1DO)
GREG WARNICK (R4DO)
NMSS_EVENTS_NOTIFICATION (EMAIL)
Event Text
AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL DELIVERED TO WRONG ADDRESS

The following information is a summary obtained from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts via email and telephone conversation:

"A single package containing eight Iridium-192 sources was bound for Canada, but was delivered to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. A person at the hospital contacted QSA Global's distribution manager and notified them of the mis-shipment and that the shipment was unopened and secured at their facility. The reason for the mis-shipment is not known at this time. The shipping company and Commonwealth of Massachusetts have initiated an investigation and the licensee is arranging for delivery of the shipment to its intended destination."

Category 2 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for a short time (minutes to hours). It could possibly be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of hours to days. These sources are typically used in practices such as industrial gamma radiography, high dose rate brachytherapy and medium dose rate brachytherapy. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf