RE: ABCNEWS.com: Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing

[Jack_Earley@RL.GOV]

Interesting--I received another response from someone who worked in EPA

Region 2 at the time:



<<I don't believe the kid was prosecuted, even though the Superfund On Scene

Coordinator argued with the NRC when the NRC brought up the issue of PRP

responsibility (potential responsible party).  The NRC wanted to go after

the last owner of the factory and the OSC felt the kid was as much of a PRP

as the factory.>>



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





-----Original Message-----

From: Gerald Nicholls [mailto:GNICHOLL@dep.state.nj.us]

Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 9:41 AM

To: emarshall@fnal.gov; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu; Jack_Earley@RL.gov

Subject: RE: ABCNEWS.com: Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing





The boy did not steal the signs.  He was walking past a demolition site near

his home and found 3 tritium exit signs in the debris.  He took them home,

reportedly to illuminate posters on the walls of his basement level bedroom.

After partially disassembling the signs and apparently breaking  one or more

of the tubes, he contacted local officials because he was concerned about

the radiation symbols he found on the signs.  Analysis of his urine showed a

TEDE of about 80 mrem.  It probably would not have been nearly this high if

he hadn't been in a basement level room (relatively low ventilation) and

hadn't been snacking while working on the signs.



About $100,000 in clean up, disposal and temporary relocation costs for the

family were paid by the state's Spill Fund.  Salary costs of the people from

the various local, state and national agencies that worked on the incident

are not included in this figure.  I was told by a reporter that the $200,000

figure came  "from the NRC".   The salary figure would have been significant

but would not have reached an additional $100,000.  Agencies involved in

responding to the incident included the NRC, USEPA, Brookhave NL, Oak Ridge

NL, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, local school officials, local

police, local fire department, local health department, state health

department and state environmental protection.  



The root cause of the incident was that the company that owned the signs did

not maintain adequate control over them and did not dispose of them

properly.



Gerald Nicholls

NJ Dept. of  Environmental Protection

609-633-7964





>>> <Jack_Earley@RL.GOV> 04/17/02 10:13AM >>>

I don't remember the details of the boy who stole the construction sign. Was

he ever prosecuted for the theft, and who paid for the $200,000 cleanup?

Ironic that they would then ask how hard is it for a criminal to obtain a

radioactive device, and cite for their example a machine that sat in a pawn

shop for a year where it could have been "purchased" by anybody. I had the

impression that journalists as a group were liberal anti-nukes (is that

redundant?). Maybe I was wrong and there's just a good number of them that

are stupid.



Jack Earley

Radiological Engineer





-----Original Message-----

From: Elaine Marshall [mailto:emarshall@fnal.gov] 

Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 6:28 AM

To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

Subject: Fw: ABCNEWS.com: Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing







> I thought you might find this story interesting.

> 

> Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing

> http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/nuclear_material020410.html 

> 

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