[ RadSafe ] Radioactive Cargo Is Lost, Then Found in Boston

[Gerry Blackwood]

THE WORLD
Radioactive Cargo Is Lost, Then Found in Boston
>From Associated Press

February 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material that 
arrived in New York in October was lost en route to Texas and was not found 
until Wednesday, when it turned up in Boston.

The material - two sources of the element americium, used in oil well
exploration - was found intact at a freight facility after a search by
federal authorities.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had not been informed of the
missing shipment until Tuesday. Depending on the material, government 
rules require notification either immediately or within 30 days.

NRC and Halliburton officials said Thursday that the public was never 
in danger.

The americium was being shipped from Russia to Houston, Halliburton 
said in a report filed with the NRC.

On Thursday, the company blamed the shipper - Greeneville, Tenn.-based
Forward Air - for losing track of the material and failing to tell Halliburton.

A spokesman for Forward Air did not return calls.

"The focus through today was on trying to find the material," NRC 
spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "We're going to be pressing them on why the 
notification was not more timely."

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the shipping company improperly
labeled the material and sent it to the wrong location. She said 
Halliburton contacted the shipper "multiple times" about the package and was told
repeatedly that it was en route to Houston.

Hall said the shipping company acknowledged Tuesday that it could not 
find the shipment. Halliburton immediately notified the NRC, she said, and a
review of surveillance tapes enabled authorities to locate the shipment 
in Boston.

Hall said the material was encased in a double-walled stainless steel
cylinder that was locked in a steel container.

"All of this was found intact, and we have no information that leads us 
to believe that the public or environment were in danger," Hall said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-halliburton11feb11,1,297
0258,print.story?coll=la-headlines-world