NOAA Site Loses Radioactive Devices

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20081113_8504.php

NOAA Site Loses Radioactive Devices
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008


A U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laboratory in Boulder, Colo., has lost three tools containing radioactive material, the Denver Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 28).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission dispatched officials to the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory on two occasions last month after the tools were reported missing. The research agency has pledged to conduct an inventory of all licensed radiological substances at the site, the commission said.

After being placed in storage, two gas chromatographs went missing with three devices that contained "an extremely low level of radioactive material, Nickel-63," NOAA officials said.

"The instruments are unlikely to pose a health hazard as they contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause permanent injury if exposed," laboratory head Alexander MacDonald said, adding that the facility has worked with NRC officials to implement measures to prevent further disappearances.

Security experts have expressed concerns that radioactive material used in medicine, research or industry might be diverted for use in a radiological "dirty bomb" (Howard Pankratz, Denver Post, Nov. 12).