The search is on for a nuclear gauge containing sealed radioactive material after it disappeared from a vehicle stolen in Philadelphia, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The gauge belonged to KAKS and Company, a Montgomery County-based construction site and soil testing business, and was not inside the stolen vehicle when the vehicle was found, DEP officials said Friday.
It is not clear when or where the gauge and vehicle were stolen. A message left for Philadelphia police was not returned.
“It is critical for anyone who has information about the lost nuclear gauge to contact local authorities or DEP,” DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection Director David Allard said. “As long as the device is not tampered with or damaged, it presents no hazard to public safety.”
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DEP officials warned anyone who finds the gauge to maintain a considerable distance from the device and contact the DEP's Southeast Regional Office at 484-250-5900.
Here is what the gauge looks like and its identifying labels.
The nuclear density gauge is a Troxler Model 3440, serial number 31109. The gauge is yellow in color and about the size of a shoe box, with an electronic keypad and a metal rod extending from the top surface.
The Troxler gauge contains approximately 8 millicuries of Cesium-137 and 40 millicuries of Americium-241. The radioactive material is in a double encapsulated source capsule within the device to protect its integrity, the DEP said in a release.
