CBRN event in Netherlands on Fri 5th July 2002

On 5th of July 2002 the VROM-Inspection was alarmed by a metal scrap dealer about the detection of an increased radiation level in a truckload of metal scrap that came from a lead smelter. An inspector / health physicist of the VROM-Inspection started immediately with an investigation. On one side of the truck he found a radiation level of 150 microSv/h. With help of a collegue the cargo of the truck was carefully inspected. An unshielded encapsulated radiation source was found. It can be described as a metal disk of 15 cm in diameter with on one flat side a cone of 4 cm in height. At the bottom it has two inscriptions:"100" and "YVG Eu152". The results from the inspection of the source are: Eu-152; maximum radiation 15.8 mSv/h at 0.1 m, 365 microSv/h at 1 m and 41 microSv/h at 3 m; estimated activity 2 GBq. In annex 1 you can find two pictures of the recovered scource.
The origin of the source could not be determined. We think that the source was manufactured in Eastern Germany or the Czech Republic. The source-container is supposedly smelted, so that the source was floating in the dross on the molten lead and was collected with the dross in a barrel that was shipped to the metal scrap dealer. The dose of one or two workers at the lead smelter is likely to be below 20 microSv. The truckdriver is supposed to have had a dose of 30 microSv. Other persons are supposed to have had a much lower dose.The source has been transported to COVRA, the radioactive waste facility in the Netherlands.