Frantic seach on for missing radioactive source after lapse

However, the spring does not pose any health hazard, AERB Secretary Dr K Parthasarathy said. The fact that it could not be picked up by the atomic energy department8217;s sensitive instruments indicates that it is probably lying buried underground, he said.

The missing radioactive Caesium indicates a serious procedural lapse on the part of the hospital, Parthasarthy conceded.

The loss of the source is rated at level 2 in the International Nuclear Event Scale INES of the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, indicating an quot;incidentquot; without major safety hazard. The INES scale categorises events from level zero for an accident with no safety significance to level 7 indicating a major accident with widespread health and environmental impact. The Chernobyl accident in Russia in 1984, for example, is rated at level 7.

The radioactive Caesium-137 spring had 73 milliCuries of dioactivity. It was about the size of a small thin pencil, 16 mm long and 3 mm wide.

Usually three such springs are introduced for cancer treatment via an applicator. While one is inserted in the cancerous region, the other two remain outside in the applicator. They are removed after the radiation therapy.

Parthasarathy said that the spring was probably lost after treatment, when it was to be put away in the wastage disposal unit.

Preliminary investigation by BARC and AERB indicates that the incident occurred due to procedural lapses, and the hospital has initiated more stringent steps as directed by AERB to ensure that such events do not occur, he said.

This is not the first time Indian atomic scientists have found themselves launching major hunts for missing radioactive material.

In September 1993, in perhaps the first incident of its kind in the country, they found themselves battling against slush and mud to retrieve stolen radioactive material from a riverbed in Chennai.

In that incident three capsules, two containing Americium-Beryllium neutron sources and one Caesium-137, were stolen and dumped into the Cooum river in Chennai by disgruntled employees of a US firm which had a contract with the Oil and Natural Gas Commission ONGC for oil drilling.