A lorryload of scrap from a French waste metal recovery company activated the radioactivity detection gate at the entrance to a Luxembourg foundry; the load was refused. The inspection authorities for classified facilities and fire-fighters were informed of the incident. The emergency services intervened on the same day on the French site to search for other radioactive items in the recovery company’s stocks. They discovered 3 metal parts with a dose rate of 35 microGy/h at 1 metre. These parts were immediately stored in a lead-lined drum and isolated in the press control room. Two days later, the fire-fighters returned to unload the lorry that had arrived back from Luxembourg; a further 3 parts emitting radiation were found and isolated. The next day, a specialist company took radioactivity measurements on the site. Six metal elements were contaminated by radium 226 and thorium 232 (equivalent dose rate on contact: 500 microSv/h). The inspections also highlighted contamination of the soils (originating from the unloaded lorry or corresponding to areas where the parts had been placed), a puddle of water (2 microSv/h) and gloves used by staff who had handled one of the parts. The puddle and the soil were marked out to prohibit access. The absence of a radioactivity detection gate at the entrance to the recovery company’s site was the cause of the accident. As instructed by the inspection authorities for classified facilities, the operator must implement several measures: send the people who had handled these parts or had come into contact with them for anthropogammametric examinations (and if necessary a radio-toxicological analysis of urine and stools), mark out and prohibit access to the contaminated areas (water and soils) and take any necessary steps to prevent the dissemination of radioactivity, have a specialist company produce a mapping of the site and more specifically the points likely to have been contaminated (shears, unloading crane grapple, parts storage site), have the site decontaminated by a specialist company, and dispose of any related waste through a specialist company.