Minutes of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division Executive Committee Meeting, 10 Jun 02, Hollywood, FL

 

Attending: (Attachment 1)

John Bennion

Ray Klann

Mark Blumberg

David Anderson

Peggy Emmett

Bill Hopkins

Michele Sutton

Jeffrey Johnson

Nolan E. Hertel

Larry Miller

David Court

Bernadette Kirk

Dan Ingersoll

 

 

1.  Call to order and consideration of agenda

 

2.  Lance Kim and Darby Kimball were introduced from the University of California, Berkley, and spoke about the ANS Student conference being held at Berkley, from April 2-5, 2003.  A career fair will be held.  The students stated that that publicity for the conference was requested more than funding.  No clear indication was given about travel reimbursement for students.  They stated that a web site was up.  The fact that the student conference takes place the week before M&C 2003 was also noted.

 

3.  Robert Hayes from Westinghouse TRU Solutions in Carlsbad, NM was introduced and gave a presentation on a proposed ANS/RPSD Certification in MCNP Shielding Analysis (Attachment 2).  This is a proposal for RPSD to conduct testing and certification, on a regular basis, for shielding analysis using the MCNP code.  He proposed two 4-hour sessions:  1)  hands-on computer work constructing input decks, and  2)  150-question multiple choice test compiled by 10 committee members, submitting 15 questions each.  He indicated this would be a benefit from RPSD to the profession, and would be modeled after the CHP program of the Health Physics Society.

Points raised by the committee:

The Nuclear Engineering Professional Engineer Exam is about to be canceled for lack of interest.

Criticality safety problems might be just as important as shielding problems.

A single code should not be endorsed by RPSD.  A shielding engineer does not necessarily have to be proficient in MCNP.

A University may have an easier way of certification through classes.

This proposal is similar to the Civil Engineer Earthquake exam.  This would probably be better attached to the PE exam.

ABET would provide the best avenue for implementing this certification, which might also include legal advantages.

There is a shielding component in the PE exam.  It may pose problems having agencies other than ABET in certifying engineers.

The executive committee voted to take this proposal under consideration and form a reply to Robert Hayes.

 

4.  Election results were announced by Larry Miller:

Chair:  Jeffrey Johnson

Vice-Chair:  David Court

Secretary:  Larry Miller

Treasurer: Laurie Watters

 

5.  Secretary’s Report:  David Court moved that the minutes from the RPSD Executive Committee Meeting at the 2001 ANS Winter Meeting at Reno, NV, be accepted.  This was seconded by Nolan Hertel, and passed by a hand vote.

 

6.  Program Committee:  David Anderson submitted the ANS RPSD Program Committee Report for the record (Attachment 3).

The Santa Fe 2002 Topical had 248 paid attendees, generating $48-50k in profit.  $2500 of this was specifically earmarked for the Blizard Scholarship.

Three sessions from the ANS 2002 Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., were moved to the ANS Summer Meeting in San Diego, CA, because of lack of meeting space.

The ICRS-10/RPSD2004 Topical Meeting chairs were announced:  Co-general chair:  David Anderson;  Technical Chairs:  Bernadette Kirk and Larry Miller.  The conference will be held May 9-14, 2004, at the Madeira Pestana Carlton Hotel in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

Larry Miller re-appointed David Anderson as program chair.

 

7.  Vice-Chair’s report:  The newsletter went out in February before the topical meeting.  It was 6 pages, including two from the topical meeting.  Any pages over 2 will result in a page charge from ANS.  The next newsletter will be limited to two pages, or be electronic.  Electronic email newsletter may be limited to 8 pages.

The per-page charge was not known at the time.

The emails would have the newsletter text as a message, and would incorporate embedded links.

Imbedded files pose the problem of slowness of connection.  The electronic email route eliminates any members who don’t have access to computers.

It was decided to solicit for the next newsletter, and pay if it ran over two pages.

ANS is pushing for international participation.  This could be accomplished by having an international representative on the RPSD executive board.  Peggy Emmett was asked for advice on the implications in the by-laws.  It was suggested that the ICRS could be tapped for international participation.

Larry Miller motioned to add an international representative to the executive committee board;  David Court seconded, and the motion was passed.  Peggy Emmett was asked to submit the changes required for the by-laws.

Jeff Johnson also reported that the RPSD membership was on the web.  Also, society journals are now searchable on the web.  The European Nuclear society has a call for papers out, and ANS requests participation.

 

8.  Treasurers Report (Attachment 4)

$1000 was paid to the Penn State Student Conference, and $2000 was paid for the Blizard Scholarship.  Nothing else has been paid.  ANS membership allocation was down 12.5% from last year.  A $2700 publicity charge was taken but later refunded by ANS.  The newsletter charge was $88.

The revenue from the topical was going to be approximately $12k.

There were no indications that the money given to the Penn State Student Conference was used for student travel as earmarked, and no response was received about a newsletter contribution.

David court motioned to approve the budget.  Nolan Hertel seconded, and the motion passed.

 

9.  Standing Committee Reports

a.  Honors and Awards- Bernadette Kirk is still soliciting nominations for the professional excellence award, the distinguished performance award, and the Rockwell award.  Nolan Hertel has been nominated as an ANS Fellow, but nominating paperwork is still required.  It was suggested that the next nominee be Bob Little.  Bernadette Kirk emphasized that we are not adequately recognizing our members.

Dan Ingersoll reported on the Blizard Scholarship:  David Anderson has replaced Nolan Hertel on the scholarship committee.  11-12 applications have been received form various schools.  Of the three students selected, the 1st choice received a larger scholarship and the 2nd choice has left the NE program.  The scholarship will then pass on to the 3rd selectee.  Bernadette Kirk agreed to update the manual with names of the awardees.  Betty Maskewitz was submitted for the Weinberg award.

b.  Mark Blumberg submitted an electronic membership report to Larry Miller.  This indicated that membership has held steady from 01-02.  Even though membership remained relatively constant, revenues can fall for a given year if renewals are submitted after the March cutoff for inclusion in the following year revenues.

c.  Standards:  Bill Hopkins

For the first time, we have lost 2 standards:  build-up factors and dose conversion have been moved to historical status.  Nolan Hertel has just taken over as chairman of the working group for the dose conversion standard; Andy Hodgdon is chairing the build-up factor standard They will need to propose that these two standards be put under re- review as an ANS standard but will have to submit new PINS forms.  This will open a 5-year window for consideration.  It was encouraged that anyone who is interested in standards contact Nolan and Andy to help resurrect these standards.  Volunteers are also needed to take over 6.4 and 6.2 for power plant shielding which are also coming up for renewal.

 

 

10.  Benchmark - Hamilton Hunter reported, through Jeff Johnson that SINBAD (Attachment 5) was ready to be elevated to ANSI/ANS Standard status.  Bill Hopkins reported that the Reactor Physics Division would start using SINBAD as their standard.  SINBAD will be released free from RSICC this summer.

 

11.  Public Policy – The Public Policy Committee has identified Radon in Homes as a technical area that RPSD should advise on.  PPC requests a new position statement.  RPSD is contributing a technical session on radon at the San Diego meeting.  Nolan Hertel moved that RPSD accept responsibility for radon.  David Court seconded, and the motion passed.  Jeff Johnson agreed to consult with Hamilton Hunter on the radon policy statement.

 

12.  Web Page – The web page has been moved so that ANS now host the site.  RPSD will be required to maintain it and someone proficient in web services needs to be found to help maintain the site.  Dan Ingersoll suggested soliciting a volunteer in the newsletter.

 

13.  Membership Initiatives – Jeff Johnson asked if we still send out letters to new members of the division.  Mark Blumberg has the new letter to send out, but needs the contact information for the new members.  Mark also requests the information on the newly elected officials for the outgoing letter.

 

14.  New Business  -  David Court took the task to prepare a letter of response for Robert Hayes from the division executive committee concerning his proposal for a MCNP shielding certification.

 

15.  Date and Time of Next Meeting – Monday, Nov. 18, 2002, 5-7pm

 

16.  Meeting was then adjourned.