The Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday it recovered in Maryland the missing nuclear gauge a Franklin County company lost in West Virginia on May 3. The device has not been tampered with or damaged.

“We are relieved that the nuclear gauge has been recovered and that no radioactive materials were released,” DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection Director David Allard said. “The agency thanks the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, West Virginia officials, the public and the citizen who discovered the gauge along the road for the combined effort to find it.”

The gauge, a Troxler Model 3430 with serial number 32506, was lost when it apparently fell off the back of a truck on I-81 between the Pennsylvania and West Virginia border between mile markers 17 and 24.

The bright yellow gauge is commonly used in road construction for taking measurements in the ground, and it is about the size of a shoe box, with electronic controls and a metal rod extending from the top surface.

The gauge is normally stored in a locked yellow transportation container when not in use at construction sites, but it apparently fell out of the container on the back of the company’s truck during transport.

Valley Quarries Inc. of Chambersburg, Franklin County, is licensed by DEP to possess and use the gauge. Staff from the company was using it in West Virginia at the time it was lost.

NewsClips:

DEP Recovers Missing Nuclear Gauge

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5/20/2013