CBRN event in Netherlands on Thu 7th August 2003

On 6 August 2003 at 11:40 am, Jewometaal alarmed the Inspectorate that they had a radiation alarm of their portal detector. Using handheld survey equipment they measured a dose rate at the surface of a 40 ft container of 10 milliSieverts per hour. The container identification number is CMCU 402328.9. An officier of the Inspectorate went to the scrapyard to investigate the container. With a portable gamma spectrometer he concluded that the radiation source in the container was Cesium-137. On 6 August 2003 at 15:00 pm the container was unloaded by a firm specialised in tracing radioactive sources in scrap, supervised by the officer of the Inspectorate. A sealed Cesium-137 source was found. The unshielded source was mounted on an aluminium shank, 9 cm long and with a diameter of 8 mm. There were no identification marks on the shank. The dose rate at the surface of the source holder was about 40 milliSieverts per hour. The dose rate at a distance of 1 meter was 0.4 milliSieverts per hour. From this data the activity was calculated to be approximately 4 GBq.The scrapload was traded by Toko Trading Corporation, Miami, Florida, USA. The container was shipped in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela and transported by MS Sierra Expres. The container arrived in Rotterdam on 3 August 2003 and was transported to Jewometaal on 6 August 2003.

CONNECTED EVENTS
On 23 July and 24 July 2003 at Jewometaal scrapyard in Rotterdam two shielded Cs-137 sources were found in two separate containers. One Cs-137 source with an activity of approximately 20 GBq and one with an activity of approximately 2 GBq. Both containers were shipped in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. One scrapload was traded also by Toko Trading Corporation, Miami, Florida, USA and the other by AMI Trading, Miami, Florida, USA.