Southwest Regional Chapter of the INMM
Report to the Executive Committee
Fiscal Year 2010

The FY10 Executive Committee of the Southwest Regional Chapter is as follows:

President:                     Keith Tolk, Milagro Consulting
Vice President:                         Wayne Kiehl, National Security Technologies
Secretary/Treasurer:     Charlie Harmon, Aquila Technologies
Members at Large:       Brian Boyer, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Leigh Bratcher, B&W Pantex
Jack Jekowski, Innovative Technology Partnerships, LLC
Doug Mayo, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Communications:         Scott Kraus, Canberra Albuquerque
Student Liaison:           Adam Williams, Sandia National Laboratories
Past President:              Johnna Marlow, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Activities this Fiscal Year:

  1. The Southwest Regional Chapter participated in a joint dinner meeting with the American Nuclear Society’s Trinity Section on September 11, 2009 at the new National Museum for Nuclear Science and History.  This event was attended by over 80 representatives from the two professional societies (10 from INMM and 71 from ANS).  Jim Walther, Museum Director, provided an excellent overview of the museum’s history and then opened the museum up for a self guided tour for our attendees.
  1. The SW Chapter held its first Executive Committee meeting of this year on October 2nd at the offices of Mechtronic Solutions in Albuquerque, where Keith Tolk introduced the new members of our EC.  The Committee reviewed our activities form the past year and discussed plans for the coming year including our Annual Winter Dinner Meeting.
  1. The SW Chapter held an Executive Committee Meeting on November 20th at the offices of Aquila Technologies, A Division of MELE Associates.  The meeting focused on the upcoming Winter Dinner Meeting to be held at the Lodge in Santa Fe.  Dr. James A. Tegnelia, recent past director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and currently a member of the prestigious Defense Science Board, will be the keynote speaker for this event.  The Committee also discussed our participation in other events planned for this year.
  1. The SW Chapter held an Executive Committee Meeting on February 4th that was hosted by Brian Boyer (Los Alamos National Laboratory) at the Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce, 109 Central Park Sq, Los Alamos, NM 87554.  The meeting focused on planning for the upcoming Technical Exchange scheduled for May 20th at the Kachina Lodge in Taos, NM.  The Committee also discussed at length an invitation from the Central Chapter to co-host a Containment/Surveillance Workshop to be held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the week of June 7, 2010.  It was decided that this was an appropriate activity for our Chapter and agreed to pursue additional information at the March 2010 meeting of the INMM Executive Committee.  The Executive Committee will travel to Amarillo, TX for a meeting at the Pantex Facility in April. 
  1. The SW Chapter supported the annual School-to-World conference held in Albuquerque on February 27, 2010.  The conference was a great success with at least a hundred students (8th and 9th graders), and many parents and teachers stopping by during the day to listen to us talk about careers in nuclear materials management.  The INMM Display was provided to us for this event and was very helpful in supporting our efforts.  Canberra provided an inspector's HF-detection device that provided a great centerpiece to attract students to the booth.  The event was also supported by representatives from our new UNM Student Chapter.  The overall conference had about 2,000 students show up for the day (see http://www.schooltoworld.org/ for more information on the event).

  2. The Chapter supported Texas A&M University’s International Workshop for Users of Proliferation Assessment Tools; Workshop I: Users in Regulatory Roles, that was held at College Station, TX on February 24-26, 2010.

  3. The SW Chapter hosted its 12th Annual Technical Exchange at the Kachina Lodge in Taos, NM on May 20, 2010.  Those attending the event included the present and two past presidents of INMM, students, and representatives from industry, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, and the Nevada Test Site, as well as visitors from the Netherlands who came to hear Brian Boyer's talk on safeguarding gas centrifuge enrichment plants. The 46 attendees heard ten excellent presentations related to managing nuclear materials.  A summary of the presentations is available on the SW Chapter’s web site (http://www.inmm.org/southwest/index.htm)

  4. The SW Chapter held an Executive Committee meeting on April 8, 2010, at the B&W Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas that was hosted by Leigh Bratcher.  The meeting focused on upcoming events, including the Annual INMM Meeting in July and the Chapter’s support of student participation. The Chapter will support attendance by one student each form the Texas A&M and University of New Mexico Student Chapters.  The Committee discussed preparations for the upcoming election of officers and agreed to submit a change to our Bylaws providing an option for separating the current Secretary/Treasurer position into two separate positions to accommodate additional membership participation with the EC.  Jack Jekowski presented an overview of the recent School to World Conference and Charlie Harmon presented an update of the Student Chapter’s petition to the INMM.  (NOTE:  The petition was subsequently reviewed and accepted by the INMM EC)

  5.  The Southwest and Central Chapters have collaborated in planning for the Containment Surveillance Workshop to be held in Oak Ridge during the week of June 7th.  A report on this workshop will be presented by the Central Regional Chapter.

  6. The University of New Mexico Student Chapter has been approved by the INMM Executive Committee.  The SW Chapter is looking forward to mentoring this new Student Chapter over the coming semesters. 

  7. The SW Chapter will hold its Annual Membership Meeting at the Annual INMM Meeting in Baltimore, MD on Wednesday evening (July 14th) from 6:00-7:00 PM in one of the ad hoc meeting rooms (to be announced later).

 

Respectfully submitted,
Charlie Harmon, INMM-SWC Secretary/Treasurer

 

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