FedEx lost radioactive package

[dtel]

You would think this stuff should be shipped a little differently ?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/11/26/fedex-searches-missing-radioactive-equipment/?test=latestnews

[BLSamuel]

You would think this stuff should be shipped a little differently ?

Yeah you'd think so. Such as special courier service but that'd make too much sense.

Reminds me of Coytee's mortar shell. Did he ever find out for sure that it wasn't active or is it still riding around in his trunk or back seat?

[dtel]

Reminds me of Coytee's mortar shell. Did he ever find out for sure that it wasn't active or is it still riding around in his trunk or back seat?

I don't remember but that was funny.

[BigStewMan]

maybe if we all turn out the lights, they can look for the glow

[sheltie dave]

I wouldn't want anyone other than FedEx handling these shipments. They are prompt, reliable, and do a better job than UPS on all the samples and product shipments I have handled.

If you desire these product shipments to be handled by a special courier that only does rad shipments, be prepare for $10,000 stress tests, contrast X-Rays that cost through the roof, and your medical insurance costs to double yet again.

In order to access the radium or other rad rat tail inbedded in that manufactured vial, you would need the key to open the Pelican/aluminum case, then open the box package, remove the vial case, unlock it with the proper key, and then open the vial case, remove the sled, and smash the shield and vial.

These shipments occur thousands of times every day, and many of them are time dependant, as the critical radioisotopes have an effective use window of days or weeks, as they decay rapidly. They are being used to help loved ones who are seriously ill, and would not be able to be properly diagnosed and/or treated effectively.

I'll try not to gio into diatribe mode, but I know of more people in Missouri that have emergency room visits from moving/dropping Klipsch speakers than those injured from radioactive material shipments nationwide. Just remember, it is more dangerous to own Klipsch speakers per capita than to be near a medical radmat shipment.[]

[Coytee]

Reminds me of Coytee's mortar shell. Did he ever find out for sure that it wasn't active or is it still riding around in his trunk or back seat?

Shadduuuuuuuup []

I've hit it a couple times on the tip and so far it's a dud [:|] [:^)] [:$]

[Coytee]

I don't remember but that was funny.

You too!

[:#] [:#] [:#] [:#]

[]

[dtel]

I've hit it a couple times on the tip and so far it's a dud

So that's why my wife did that to me, I would guess the answer was the same ? [:|]

[peshewah]

I'm sure they have plenty radioactive stuff laying around and I think they are having trouble getting rid of it. So if it is lost they will probably send them another.

[dtel]

I wouldn't want anyone other than FedEx handling these shipments. They are prompt, reliable, and do a better job than UPS on all the samples and product shipments I have handled.

If you desire these product shipments to be handled by a special courier that only does rad shipments, be prepare for $10,000 stress tests, contrast X-Rays that cost through the roof, and your medical insurance costs to double yet again.

In order to access the radium or other rad rat tail inbedded in that manufactured vial, you would need the key to open the Pelican/aluminum case, then open the box package, remove the vial case, unlock it with the proper key, and then open the vial case, remove the sled, and smash the shield and vial.

These shipments occur thousands of times every day, and many of them are time dependant, as the critical radioisotopes have an effective use window of days or weeks, as they decay rapidly. They are being used to help loved ones who are seriously ill, and would not be able to be properly diagnosed and/or treated effectively.

I'll try not to gio into diatribe mode, but I know of more people in Missouri that have emergency room visits from moving/dropping Klipsch speakers than those injured from radioactive material shipments nationwide. Just remember, it is more dangerous to own Klipsch speakers per capita than to be near a medical radmat shipment.

Your probably right it just sounds a little crazy. I probably don't want to know some of the stuff going through the mail.

It can't be any worse than what's in some of the railroad cars that go through every big city and right through neighborhoods across the country. There's plenty of hazardous chemicals parked in peoples back yards and in the middle of cities.

[BLSamuel]

I wouldn't want anyone other than FedEx handling these shipments. They are prompt, reliable, and do a better job than UPS on all the samples and product shipments I have handled.

If you desire these product shipments to be handled by a special courier that only does rad shipments, be prepare for $10,000 stress tests, contrast X-Rays that cost through the roof, and your medical insurance costs to double yet again.

In order to access the radium or other rad rat tail inbedded in that manufactured vial, you would need the key to open the Pelican/aluminum case, then open the box package, remove the vial case, unlock it with the proper key, and then open the vial case, remove the sled, and smash the shield and vial.

These shipments occur thousands of times every day, and many of them are time dependant, as the critical radioisotopes have an effective use window of days or weeks, as they decay rapidly. They are being used to help loved ones who are seriously ill, and would not be able to be properly diagnosed and/or treated effectively.

I'll try not to gio into diatribe mode, but I know of more people in Missouri that have emergency room visits from moving/dropping Klipsch speakers than those injured from radioactive material shipments nationwide. Just remember, it is more dangerous to own Klipsch speakers per capita than to be near a medical radmat shipment.

Sounds like these are shipped in pretty much idiot proof difficult to open very strong containers so one would have to work real hard for any radioactive exposure. If such a package were to be found by someone (don't think Fedex really loses things along the road) it' sounds like it would take some pretty powerful cutting tools or heavy machinery to get into the contents so very little risk of exposure and not enough to pose any risk beyond person in very close proximity . Maybe a big brute of a backhoe could be used to crack it open?

Gotta wonder what they're carrying when they send a van to pick something up and deliver it? One of my daughters ex boyfriends father worked drviing such a van. I think when he did it he would pick up his cargo in Indiana and deliver it to somewhere in Tennessess. Not sure if he brought anything back on the return trip. Probably mostly packages that will incur large penalties if they're late.

[Coytee]

One of my daughters ex boyfriends father worked drviing such a van. I think when he did it he would pick up his cargo in Indiana and deliver it to somewhere in Tennessess

If it was radioactive and heading to TN, it's a fair chanced that it was heading to Oak Ridge which is about 20 miles from my office.

[sheltie dave]

It seems as if it is the cocktail check source used in an MRI, but as usual the reporter leaves out all the important facts. If it was indeed a calibration seed or cocktail, it is a minor issue. If it was a Moly/Tec 99 solution, it is a bigger snafu, but still fairly minor on the risk side.

We have the medical radioisotope production facility here in Maryland Heights that provides many of the needed med use products nationwide, and they run their pickups and FedEx outbound flights on a ten to fifteen minute window. The pickup MUST go down within ten minutes, and the plane departs the runway within fifteen minutes of the packages being secured on the plane. The radmat packages are handled throughout the system on a critical urgent basis - we are talking about hundreds of thousands of $$$ with a three day useful life before they are rendered useless by time itself - so delays of short half life cocktails are verboten.

Calibration seeds and cocktails are still rigidly controlled in the shipment process, but their shipping boxes preclude occupational radiation exposure.

The highest risk and lowest controlled/tracked items that DO scare me are the nuclear densomiters used to measure /grade concrete and road pours all around, These are the devices that have significant Cobalt and Cesium sources, are poorly maintained, handled by bored techs out at construction sites, and create radiation fields when in use. We had one that shut down work at one of the rad sites I worked at in California, and it was not even in use or part of the site. The two day trained radiation safety officer for a construction company had the nuc stored in the trunk of his car directly behing his baby car seat.[:@]

[sheltie dave]

And here is the actual story...

RADIOACTIVE RODS-

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- FedEx Corp. located a missing shipment of
low-level radioactive rods used by hospitals to calibrate CT scanning
equipment.



A cylinder containing the rods, which had been missing since Nov. 23,
was found at a FedEx facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, the package's
destination city, Sandra Munoz, a spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail.
The package was sent by plane Nov. 22 from Fargo, North Dakota, Munoz
said.



"It was always in our custody," she said, hours after Memphis,
Tennessee-based FedEx confirmed that it couldn't account for the
shipment..



The cylinder was one of three, each packaged separately, in a box that
got wet, possibly during a rainstorm in Memphis, where the shipment was
transferred for the last leg of its journey to Knoxville, Munoz said.
After delivery on Nov. 23, the box had water damage and one cylinder was
missing.



FedEx retrieved the cylinder today in Knoxville, Munoz said.



"My guess, and we are looking into this, was as they were doing the
sort, they came across a box with no label on it, they set it aside,"
Munoz said. "They knew we were looking for a cylinder, but they never
opened that box until today."



The recovered cylinder, about 10 inches long and weighing 20 pounds,
held four rods of germanium-68. They are used in CT, or computerized
tomography, scans in which X-rays from a variety of angles produce
cross-sectional images of patients' bodies.



Total radioactivity for the rods is 684 megabecquerels, the equivalent
of about 18 microcuries, said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The rods aren't considered significant
sources of radiation, according to the International Atomic Energy
Agency.



If someone had opened the canister, "it would take like 1,000 hours of exposure to get a skin blister," Munoz said.



She declined to identify the final destination of the package. FedEx is
the second-largest U.S. package-shipping company after United Parcel
Service Inc.