FYI....
Jaro
Alberta facility reports loss of radioactive device
The Sudbury Star Sun 26 Jan 2003
LEDUC, Alta. (CP) -- An Alberta oilfield company has temporarily lost its licence to use nuclear materials after it reported the loss of a tiny but possibly dangerous radioactive device.
The silver metallic cylinder, smaller than an AA battery, is part of a system used in petroleum exploration and normally kept in a shielded container. It contains radioactive material called cesium-137, used by the drilling industry to help characterize rock strata.
Workers at Tucker Wireline Services Canada said they last saw the device on Sunday, but found its container empty on Tuesday after the crew had travelled hundreds of kilometres through Saskatchewan and Alberta.
An official with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said the device is dangerous but only if it comes in close contact with people.
"This is a radioactive substance that emits gamma radiation, and it can cause radiation burns if it's close to the body for more than a few minutes," spokesman Michel Cleroux said.
The commission, which acts as Canada's nuclear energy and materials watchdog, has suspended Tucker Wireline's licence to use nuclear materials while the investigation continues.
The small cylinder was last seen at an oil-drilling site 35 kilometres southwest of the village of Pierceland in northwestern Saskatchewan.
Since then, the Tucker Wireline truck carrying the cylinder has been to the company's branch in Leduc just south of Edmonton, and to another oil-drilling site in Wandering River, about 160 kilometres north Edmonton.
The company has been looking for the device ever since, but a search of Wandering River, Leduc, Pierceland and routes in between has turned up nothing, said Jeff Levack, sales manager at the company's Canadian head office in Calgary.
"It's a major concern," Levack said Friday. "The search is focusing along the highways, and in the bush where we were in Saskatchewan.
"Where we would really have a problem is if someone were to find the source, not know what it is, and pick it up and carry it around in their pocket."