EDITOR’S NOTE: The Department of Environmental Protection reported at 5:20 p.m. Friday the gauge had been recovered but a spokesperson said he had no further information.
A portable nuclear gauge containing sealed sources of radioactive material has gone missing in Clinton County. The public is being asked to help find the gauge that is believed to have fallen off a truck Wednesday evening.
There is potential for contamination if the device belonging to CMT Laboratories is damaged, said David Allard, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Radiation Protection.
“As long as the device is not tampered with or damaged, it presents no hazard to public safety,” he said.
Anyone who finds it should maintain distance, not handle it and call the state police barracks at Lamar at 570-726,600, he said.
The Troxler Model 3440 gauge is yellow in color and about the size of a shoebox, with an electronic keypad and a metal rod extending from the top surface.
It contains approximately nine millicuries of Cesium-137 and 44 millicuries of Americium-241. The radioactive material is double encapsulated within the device to protect its integrity, DEP says.
The gauge’s user completed its work at approximately 6 p.m. Wednesday and inadvertently departed the job site in Logan Twp. without properly securing it in its case, the agency said.
The vehicle had traveled toward Loganton when the gauge was discovered missing, DEP said it was told. CMT is offering a $1,000 reward for its safe return.
Attempts to reach the State College area company were unsuccessful.
CMT is licensed to have the gauge that is commonly used to evaluate the properties of building materials at construction sites, DEP says.