Volume 5, Number 2
October 2007

Inside Insight
Insight into the activities of the INMM leadership and Executive Committee

By Steve Ortiz INMM Vice President E-mail: sortiz@sandia.gov

Annual Meeting
We had a very successful annual meeting. The meeting venue was the Marriott Desert Ridge resort in Tucson Arizona. The location in the Desert was both relaxing and energetic. The technical program was exceptional. The papers and presenters are what make the annual meeting worth attending. They keep the membership current in policy, technology and activities encompassing the interests of all of our technical Divisions. The opening plenary session focused on GNEP. The closing plenary sessions focused on GNEP and WINS. These sessions provided valuable insight to activities supporting the Nuclear Renaissance occurring around the world.

50th Anniversary
An ad hoc committee has been established to plan and implement events celebrating the INMM’s 50th anniversary. E. R. Johnson and Debbie Dickman are co-chairs for the committee and have begun to get others involved in developing events to celebrate the special milestone. They are enthusiastically moving forward with plans for our 50th celebration.

WINS
INMM continues to support activities associated with World Institute of Nuclear Safety (WINS). Jim Tape is very active supporting the WINS coordinating committee. Paul Ebel and Ed Johnson represented the INMM at a meeting to develop a draft WINS organizational document. David Lambert who is chair of the INMM Physical Protection Technical Division represented INMM at the WINS pilot project in Oslo Norway. It is hopeful that the results of these meeting will be presented at this year’s annual meeting in Nashville.

EC Meeting
The July Executive Committee meeting was held at the Desert Ridge Marriott resort preceding the annual meeting. As usual the EC put in a very long day addressing the business of the institute. I would like to thank everyone who attended this meeting for their contribution toward making the EC meeting productive.

IAEA General Conference
Jim Tape and I represented the INMM at the General Conference of the IAEA in Vienna Austria. Associated with the General Conference was the Scientific Forum. This year’s focus of the Scientific Forum was “Global Challenges and the Development of Atomic Energy: The Next 25 years.” The forum was broken into four topical areas for discussion. The areas were, “Nuclear Power,” “Meeting New Challenges in Food, Agriculture and Health,” “Global Safety and Security Regime: Building Robust Safety and Security Infrastructures” and “Safeguards and Nuclear Verification: A Long Term View.” It was interesting to listen to the perspective of the speaker’s on these topics. Even though they represented many different countries there was commonality in their concerns.