...a sealed source of radioactive material contained in a small volume—but not radioactively contaminated soils and bulk metals—in any one or more of the following conditions
In an uncontrolled condition that requires removal to protect public health and safety from a radiological threat
Controlled or uncontrolled, but for which a responsible party cannot be readily identified
Controlled, but the material's continued security cannot be assured. If held by a licensee, the licensee has few or no options for, or is incapable of providing for, the safe disposition of the material
In the possession of a person, not licensed to possess the material, who did not seek to possess the material
In the possession of a State radiological protection program for the sole purpose of mitigating a radiological threat because the orphan source is in one of the conditions described in one of the first four bullets and for which the State does not have a means to provide for the material's appropriate disposition
1984 - Morocco - A source was lost during radiography and taken home by other people who initially failed to recognize the source.
1987 - Praça Cívica, Brazil - A caesium-137 based teletherapy unit left behind at Goiânia’s Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia . This is one of the most disastrous orphan source incidents, the event is known as the Goiânia accident.
1996 - Gilan, Iran - A source was temporarily lost during radiography at a power plant and found by an unsuspecting worker who put the source in his chest pocket for about 90 minutes. 1 person was severely injured.
1997 - Tbilisi, Georgia - The Lilo Training Center had multiple sources dating back to Soviet era military activity; 11 were injured.
2001 - Georgia - Three woodcutters in northern Georgia found two Soviet-era RTG elements near the Inguri River containing Strontium-90 and became sick from the high levels of radiation. As many as 300 orphan sources had been discovered in the country by 2006, when a team from the IAEA and Georgian government found two containing Caesium-137 in the Racha region. One of the sources had been kept in a home, and another in an abandoned factory used as storage by farmers.
2008 - Karachi, Pakistan - An orphan source was discovered within the vicinity of the OGDCL. Two containers were found buried which were suspected to be left over from Soviet oil drilling operations before the OGDCL took over in late 1960s.
2010 - Mayapuri, India - An orphan source caused the death of one worker and irradiated seven others in a scrap yard in the Mayapuri radiological accident
2013 - Hueypoxtla, Mexico - A defunct cobalt therapy machine en route to proper disposal was stolen, apparently inadvertently, when the heavy truck transporting it was hijacked.
