Iridium-192 Source - Packaging Problems

[Salladay John L PORT <SalladayJL@mail.ports.navy.mil>]

Iridium-192 Source - Packaging Problems



New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune

Tuesday, 8 January 2002

Radioactive package under close scrutiny 

By Joan Treadway 

Staff writer/The Times-Picayune



A package with radioactive material earmarked for industrial use arrived at

Louis Armstrong International Airport emitting radiation levels at least

five times higher than U.S. regulations allow, and state and federal

agencies are investigating.

Authorities said Monday they are unsure how many people handled the package,

which was mailed from Sweden and bound for Source Production and Equipment

Co. Inc. of St. Rose, but said preliminary calculations indicate that those

who did would have been exposed radiation levels similar to those in CAT

scans, the computer-enhanced X-ray used to detect abnormalities in the human

body.

It isn't clear when the package began emitting excess radiation, officials

said. The package, containing a large amount of a radioactive isotope called

iridium-192, was shipped Dec. 27 by the Swedish firm Studsvik via air

freight to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and then by FedEx to Memphis,

Tenn. It arrived in Louisiana by truck and was retrieved Wednesday at an air

freight terminal by the St. Rose company, said Michael Henry, a senior

environmental scientist at the state Department of Environmental Quality in

Baton Rouge.

"We're trying to determine the root cause of the problem and to assess the

dosage that might have been received by baggage handlers," he said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission also is involved in the

investigation.

Henry said the radiation coming from the package was "far in excess of

allowable limits" in terms of roentgens, a basic unit of exposure to

radiation. The package was sending out 1 roentgen per hour at a distance of

20 feet away, while the limit set for the surface of the package is 200

milliroentgens per hour, with 1 roentgen being equal to 1,000

milliroentgens, he said.

Authorities want to check their preliminary findings to be sure, though

"I've never heard of a CAT causing problems," Henry said.

The material it contained, iridium-192, is sold to testing laboratories,

which use it in radiography to check welded joints in structures ranging

from oil pipelines to bridges, company President R.D. "Donny" Dicharry said.

Following normal company precautions, manager Tony Bustillo checked the

package for radiation while still near the airport, Dicharry said. When

Bustillo discovered the problem, he brought the package to St. Rose, where

it was put into a safe container at the company's headquarters, and

authorities were contacted, Dicharry said.

Dicharry said that although Bustillo received a higher-than-usual dose of

radiation, it was still too low to cause him any harm.

In a news release Studsvik said the package was measured before it was

shipped and it "displayed normal levels of radiation."

It was not among those selected for a U.S. Customs Service check, said

Virginal Dabbs, a spokeswoman for the agency in New Orleans. The agency

checks some but not all imported merchandise, she said, but the criteria it

uses to make such decisions can't be publicized for security reasons.

State officials will meet in Louisiana this week with Studsvik executives on

what to do next, Henry said.

. . . . . . .

Joan Treadway can be reached at jtreadway@timespicayune.com or (504)

826-3305.



John L. Salladay,  CHP 

salladayjl@mail.ports.navy.mil <mailto:salladayjl@mail.ports.navy.mil>  

(207)  438-2708 phone 

(207)  438-1798 fax 



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/