Volume 4, Number 3
October 2006

Inside Insight

By Nancy Jo Nicholas INMM Vice President E-mail: njnicholas@lanl.gov

Greetings, fellow INMM members.

One of my duties as vice president is to write this column to provide members with insight on INMM leadership activities. Our immediate past president, John Matter, and I traveled to Vienna the week of Sept. 18 to represent the INMM at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference, as well as at a special event on a New Framework for the Utilization of Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century: Assurances of Supply and Nonproliferation.

For the past 10 years INMM has enjoyed non-governmental organization observer status at the IAEA General Conference. Discussions at the general conference emphasized the importance of IAEA safeguards system and of continuing steps to reinforce it. Member States were encouraged to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements, including the Additional Protocol, with the goal of more thorough inspections and strengthened capability to detect undeclared nuclear material and activities.

The special event focused on the nuclear fuel cycle -- including presentations on advanced fuel cycles and reactor concepts, waste management issues and the research reactor fuel cycle. We met with two IAEA deputy director generals and discussed how INMM can support the IAEA’s mission. John and I also enjoyed meeting with Jerry Barton, current president of the Vienna INMM chapter, and several active chapter members.

We discussed their ideas for the planned Vienna Science Fair in spring 2007 and the IAEA’s International Safeguards Symposium planned for October 2006.

While in Vienna we also met with the American Nuclear Society President Harold McFarlane to explore common interests between ANS and INMM. John and I met with Charles Curtis and Laura Holgate from the Nuclear Threat Initiative on the margins of the General Conference.

They are both very complimentary of INMM’s leadership and support in globally promoting best practices for nuclear materials management. We also visited the IAEA’s Seibersdorf Laboratories and had tours of several laboratories where nuclear radiation is being used to increase food production and fight disease. (Unfortunately the safeguards analytical laboratories were not part of the tour.)

On Nov. 29-30, the INMM Executive Committee will meet in Tucson, Ariz., at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort (the site of the 2007 annual meeting.) The INMM annual budget is always the primary topic of the November Executive Committee meeting.

I enjoyed seeing many of you at the Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., last July and look forward to many more successful INMM annual meetings and workshops!