Volume 3, Number 3
January 2006

Inside Insight

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

One of my duties as vice president is to write this column to provide members with insight on the activities of the INMM leadership. Our Immediate Past President John Matter and I traveled to Vienna to represent the INMM at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s General Conference and Scientific Forum the week of Sept. 25. INMM has nongovernmental organization observer status at the General Conference.

Discussions at the General Conference emphasized the importance of the IAEA safeguards system and of continuing steps to reinforce it, encouraging participating countries to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements including the Additional Protocol, to enable more thorough inspections and strengthen the system's capability for detecting undeclared nuclear material and activities.

The Scientific Forum 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 three IAEA deputy director generals and discussed how INMM can support the IAEA’s mission.

David Wallin, the deputy director general for management, asked me to encourage INMM members to review online IAEA position postings at www.iaea.org. John Matter and I also enjoyed meeting with Jerry Barton and Jill Cooley from INMM’s Vienna Chapter. We discussed their ideas for the Vienna Science Fair planned for this spring and the IAEA’s International Safeguards Symposium planned for October 2006. While in Vienna we also met with the American Nuclear Society Vice President/President Elect Harold McFarlane to explore common interests between ANS and INMM.

On Nov. 16 and 17, the INMM Executive Committee held a meeting in Tucson, Ariz.,at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort (the site for the 2007 INMM Annual Meeting.) The INMM annual budget is always the primary topic of the November Executive Committee meeting, but the “Curtis Challenge” was another major discussion topic this year.

Treasurer Robert Curl and the support staff from The Sherwood Group did a great job, and we expect to see a balanced budget for the Institute in FY06. There are several regional and topical INMM-sponsored workshops planned this year, and, of course, Charles Petri has sent out the call for papers for the 2006 Annual Meeting. (Feb. 1 is the deadline for submitting an abstract for the Annual Meeting. See the www.inmm.org for more information on abstract submission.)

In his opening plenary speech at the 2005 Annual Meeting, Charles Curtis, president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, challenged INMM to more actively promote best practices in nuclear materials management globally.

INMM President Cathy Key asked the INMM Fellows Committee to explore options for addressing this challenge. John Matter, on behalf of the Fellows, presented their recommendations to the Executive Committee in November. Recommendations have been presented to NTI and we will discuss plans for this project in the future.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at the 47th INMM Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., July 16-20.