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November 11, 2008
Device containing radioactive materials stolen on Hatteras or Ocracoke  The North Carolina Radiation Protection Section reported yesterday that a device containing Cobalt 57, a radioactive material, was stolen last Friday from a pickup truck somewhere between Buxton and Ocracoke. State officials are advising residents of the Hatteras and Ocracoke islands that the device, if handled improperly, can pose a potential health and safety risk. Cobalt 57 and the device itself are used to test for lead contamination in paints and other surface materials. “It’s a very low hazard potential,” said Grant Mills, a health physicist with the Radiation Protection Division. “However, it does have enough radioactive material in it that it needs to be licensed.” Mills added that the device is “absolutely not a major hazard,” but that if it were to be broken open, people in the vicinity would be exposed to radiation. Even then, he said, it would not be a fatal situation. Matrix Health and Safety Consultants, based in Raleigh, reported the device – an RMD model LPA-1 paint analyzer – as stolen from a 2000 Blue Chevy Silverado with the owner’s name on the side of the truck. The truck was being used by a Matrix contractor, and the device went missing somewhere between Buxton and Ocracoke. The theft was reported to the state’s Radiation Protection Section and the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department. The device is a RMD Model LPA-1 X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) paint analyzer, serial number 2054. The device was secured in its transportation container – a black aluminum briefcase measuring 14-inches-by-16-inches-by 8-inches – at the time of its disappearance. There are no markings on the outside of the transport case. The device resembles a large, pistol-grip garden hose sprayer attachment. It has a digital readout on the back of the device, push-button pad, and a small yellow and magenta radiation symbol on the top. (See photographs at http://www.deh.enr.state.nc.us/pressimages.htm) The source of radioactive material – 15 millicuries of Cobalt 57 – is sealed in a stainless steel capsule. The device poses no immediate health or safety threat unless it is mishandled or broken open. If the device is found, do not touch or move it. If this device is found or you have any information concerning its location, please contact the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department at (252) 926-3171, the N.C. Radiation Protection Section at (919) 571-4141, or your local law enforcement agency at 911. Matrix Health and Safety is offering a reward for the return of the sealed device. The N.C. Radiation Protection Section is investigating this incident to determine if Matrix Health and Safety was in compliance with their radioactive materials license at the time of the theft. |
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