Radioactive Device Found After County Worker Lost It

A Spokane County employee lost a piece of equipment containing radioactive material Wednesday night, spurring a search and concerns that someone might break open the tool’s inner capsule.

A contractor found the $3,000 device later that night at Fourth and Maple near downtown Spokane. He returned it to the county Thursday.

It sustained slight damage but no radioactive leaks, county Public Works Department spokesman Chad Hutson said.

A department employee who had been working on Saltese Lake Road in the Spokane Valley lost the asphalt-measuring device sometime after placing it on a pickup truck’s tailgate and then driving off.

The portable densitometer, used to determine if asphalt is compressed to the correct specifications, contained cesium-137 and americium-241/beryllium, two radioactive elements.

It posed no health risk unless someone tampered with it and damaged its inner capsule, county officials said.

The biggest concern, Hutson said, was that children might discover the 2-1/2-foot-wide device, which has an arm that extends to the height of an adult, and try to take it apart. But even if the capsule had been broken, exposure probably wouldn’t have been more severe than a dental X-ray, Hutson said, unless the person handled the device for a long time.

“It releases radiation slowly - the longer you hold it,” Hutson said.

Workers who use the device wear badges that measure cumulative radiation exposure levels, but none ever has tested high, Hutson said.

Public Works Department officials said they will review safety precautions with employees to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.

, DataTimes