FedEx Shipped a High Radiation Package Without Knowledge

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FedEx Shipped a High Radiation Package Without Knowledge

       





            January 10, 2002



                   

                   



            FedEx Shipped a High Radiation Package Without Knowledge

            By MATTHEW L. WALD

            ASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — FedEx unwittingly carried a package from 

Paris 

            to New Orleans last week that was emitting so much radiation that 



            the recipient, a company that packages radiation sources for 

            industrial testing, has been unable to get near enough to measure 

it 

            directly.

            But FedEx officials said the fact that the container passed 

            undetected through the company's system did not indicate a 

security 

            risk, because the shipper and the recipient were known to FedEx, 

            allowing easy approval of the shipment.

            If terrorists had tried to ship radioactive material they would 

have 

            failed, the company said, because extra precautions would have 

been 

            taken in the case of an unknown shipper or recipient.

            FedEx never monitored the radiation while the shipment was in its 



            custody. The recipient, the Source Production and Equipment 

Company, 

            notified FedEx of the radiation after a FedEx truck delivered the 



            300-pound package to the company's factory in St. Rose, La. 

            The company told FedEx in an initial estimate that the dose at 

the 

            surface was 10 rem per hour. If that is correct, a person exposed 

to 

            the radiation would exceed the annual limit for exposure in half 

an 

            hour, and within a few hours would show effects from radiation 

            poisoning.







            At the Texas office of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Chuck 

            Cain, the acting director of the materials branch, said that 

"this 

            event could have had very serious consequences."But Mr. Cain 

added 

            that it did not appear that anyone had absorbed a large dose.

            The package contained Iridium- 172, which is used for industrial 

            radiography. The radioactive material is put behind a heavy piece 

of 

            metal, and by measuring what comes through the other side, 

            technicians can look for cracks or other flaws. 

            The shipper was a Swedish manufacturer, Studsvik. 

            Scott A. Mugnow, director of safety at FedEx, said the pilots on 

the 

            plane that carried the shipment were equipped with badges that 

            measure radiation, and that when those were processed they did 

not 

            show significant exposure. But other workers who handled the 

            shipment did not have such badges. FedEx is trying to calculate 

            their exposure. Mr. Mugnow would not describe how a package from 

an 

            unknown shipper would have been treated differently.

            The president of the Source Production did not return phone calls 



            over two days.



                 





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