The box of eight local power range monitors was found Oct. 6 under a pallet and other material inside the warehouse, where it mostly likely sat for decades, according to a letter from Exelon Generation to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nothing on the box marked the contents as containing radioactive material, according to the letter.

The monitors, which measure power inside of the nuclear reactor, contained less than a gram of uranium-235, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Uranium-235 is radioactive. If ingested or inhaled, it can cause cancer or serious damage to major organs in the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

It is the same isotope of uranium that is used within the plant’s fuel rods, said Dave Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists. With enough of the material, someone could make a dirty bomb or nuclear weapon, he said.

“You want to control this material so it doesn’t get into places it shouldn’t be,” Lochbaum said.

Radiation is odorless and tasteless, so it can cause harm before someone realizes they are being exposed, he said……http://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/investigations/2017/01/04/nuclear-material-misplaced-oyster-creek/96165918/