Transportation Operations Experience Involving Suspected Leaking Cesium Capsules*

In Ma¥ 1988, contamination arrl. elevated radioactivity in a storage pool were detected at the Decatur, Georgia, facility of Radiation sterilizers, Inc. (RSI). The contamination and pool activity were traced to the 137es capsules which were used at the facility to sterilize canmercial products by irradiation. Since the pool and facility were not designed or licensed for handling unencapsulated material, an inunediate project was initiated to stabilize and clean up the facility. One of the first tasks of the project was to identify arrl. remove the one or more leaking capsules, each of which containe:l approximately 30,000 ci of 137es.