Volume 5, Number 2
October 2007

INMM, Fifty Years and Going Strong: Some Thoughts

By Taner Uckan, ORNL

INMM is preparing for the momentous 50th anniversary celebration at next year’s annual meeting. For that occasion, I would like to share some thoughts with the members.

Year after year, when I entered the opening plenary session on the first day of the annual meeting, the first thing I noticed were the flags of the participant countries from around the world. It has always given me great pleasure to be reminded that INMM is indeed an international organization.

I believe that over the years INMM has been able to capture the hearts and minds of its members and that it continues to do so, mainly because of the shared goal of promoting “peaceful coexistence” on this precious earth of ours by managing the immense power of nuclear material. The most important message that INMM can convey during this celebration to its members would be to define its future mission and how it plans to pursue it.

INMM should present bold initiatives for the future. It should focus on the science and technology involved in the peaceful uses of nuclear material – such as isotope production and power generation with less waste through the use of Global Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative worldwide.

INMM should also define its role as a steward of the environment, emphasizing topics such as the effective management of nuclear waste and the role of nuclear power in the strategy to address global warming by reducing carbon emissions. Moreover, INMM should promote nuclear nonproliferation more strongly than ever, in particular, to promote the total elimination of the nuclear arsenals and the stockpiles of weapons-grade material, as a new initiative.

I believe that now is the time for INMM to openly discuss the total worldwide elimination of the nuclear arsenals and to consider that to be its primary mission for the next 50 years. While IAEA is getting ready for the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) , I hope that INMM demonstrates its commitment and leadership by creating a new division (such as “nuclear arsenal elimination”) to address some specific goals on this during the next year’s anniversary. Based on past successes and recent initiatives, such as the WINS, which complements NIT, I believe that INMM can promote this bold mission, with the support of its world-wide members, as a leader of the global nuclear nonproliferation movement.

I am confident that INMM can successfully able to advance this new mission through energizing its members and through challenging the members of the IAEA; both can act as advocates for the mission and thus can greatly influence both policymakers in their respective governments and the citizens of their communities. INMM should also encourage its student chapters to adopt these goals and to be diligent in their pursuit, and I believe this would be the only way to make the world much safer place for the future generations.

And finally, these thoughts would hope to generate some invigorating discussions and fruitful debates in the INMM community for days to come while we are all getting ready to celebrate the 50th anniversary.