Subject: North American ISOE ALARA Symposium Date Saver (2024 / 2025)
Dear Radiation Protection Managers and Regulators,
Re: 2024 North American ISOE ALARA Symposium Date Savers
· January 3 - 5, 2024
· January 14 - 15, 2025
On behalf of the NATC NPRE Technical Program Committee, I am pleased to invite you to attend the 2024 North American ISOE ALARA Symposium to be held Wednesday, January 3, 2024 – Friday, January 5, 2024.
The 2024 Symposium will be held in-person at the Sheraton Sand Key, 1160 Gulf Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767; phone 727-595-1611.
The 2025 North American ISOE ALARA Symposium will be held Tuesday, January 14, 2025 – Thursday, January 16, 2025, at the Sheraton Sand Key, Florida, 1160 Gulf Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767;
phone 727-595-1611.
The NATC Technical Program Committee has been expanded for the 2024 Symposium to provide the PEP Continuing Education Courses, Symposium and Region III and IV RPM meetings in the same week. The 2024 and 2025 North American ISOE ALARA Symposium will again be the premier regulatory/RPM meeting of the year. In February 2023, the CNSC Chief Scientist and Vice-President, Peter Elder, The Honorable David Wright, NRC Commissioner, CNSC RP inspector and 12 NRC RP inspectors/managers attended.
The 2024 agenda will be sent by early November 2023 for your planning purposes. Please note that proposed speakers and panel members are in the process of being contacted and confirmed.
Nominations are being solicited from September to December 2023 for the following, watch for the respective nomination forms/questionnaires via email:
· 2023 World Class ALARA Performer
· 2023 RP Professional of the Year
· John M. Palms Outstanding Innovation Awards
The January 2024 symposium will include the following schedule (all times are New York-Eastern Standard Times, EST):
Wednesday, January 3, 2024 (8 am - 5 pm)
Day 1 including Plenary Speakers (U.S. NRC Commissioner TBA, 2022 World Class Performance ALARA Award, and RPM Presentations on Outage OEs Lessons Learned)
Thursday, January 4, 2024 (8 am - 5 pm)
Day 2 including U.S. NRC Regulatory Presentations on observations from U.S. NRC ALARA Inspection Programs, Revisions to Regulations and NRC RP/ALARA Findings in 2022-2023
Friday, January 5, 2024 (8 am - 12 pm)
Day 3 ISOE ALARA Symposium (RPM Operating Radiological Events and Lessons Learned)
Friday, January 5, 2024 (1 pm - 5 pm)
Region III & IV RPM Meetings (open to all Regions) Observations from NRC Branch Chiefs and RP Inspectors in Control of RP Programs
Symposium Objectives:
Since 1997, the annual North American ISOE ALARA Symposium has steadily grown with utility RP managers attending from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The NATC Board knows the symposia could not have been so successful without your willingness to share radiological events, good practices and lessons learned from recent spring and fall refueling outages in Mexico and the U.S. and maintenance/refurbishment outages in Canada. The 2024 Symposium will focus on 2023 outage experience. RPMs have found it valuable to bring young health physicists, ALARA Committee Members, outage, and maintenance managers to past ALARA Symposia to enhance knowledge transfer to the next generation of health physicists and increase awareness of Station ALARA Committee Members on the latest NRC regulations and RP OEs. The feedback from maintenance and outage managers has been positive.
The 2024 winter ALARA symposium will continue to be the premier utility/regulatory meeting for Radiation Protection Managers and health physics professionals to exchange the latest good practices and lessons learned from innovative technology and regulatory ALARA revisions. In 2021-2023, NATC staff have developed over 15 ISOE Information Sheets (IFS) and analyses of major refueling outage tasks to share consolidated benchmarking RWP/REP dose and person-hours information in preparation for spring 2024 refueling and maintenance outages. The IFS will be made available to attendees.
The symposium plans to feature technical papers on the latest approaches in work management, dose control, pixelated 3D CZT technology, remote monitoring, AI, source term reduction, personnel dosimetry QA lessons learned and dose rate measurements. The symposium is held early in the calendar year at the suggestion of nuclear utility Radiation Protection Managers to assist individual plants in setting annual and refueling outage ALARA dose goals/targets.
Call for Papers:
Authors of papers for the 2024 North American ISOE ALARA Symposium are requested to send their paper titles and abstracts to the Technical Program Committee by November 1, 2023. Please send the title, authors and abstract to Amy Keep at almoeller88@gmail.com. Additional information for authors will be provided to you.
Symposium Registration:
The Symposium Registration Fee is $675 USD. The fee can be paid for by credit card on the square link, mailing a check to NPRE, University of Illinois, 104 S Wright St., Urbana, Illinois 61801 or wiring the funds (contract Amy Keep for wire instructions). The registration fee includes continental breakfasts, lunches (Wednesday through Friday) and vendor reception on Wednesday evening.
Attendance at the Region III and IV RPM Meeting on Friday, January 5, 2024, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm is at no cost. Attendees from other regions and countries are encouraged to attend the Regional RPM meeting. The symposium registration size is limited to 180 attendees and vendors. Attendees are asked to stay in the Sheraton Sand Key Hotel because the room block provides the revenue for the ballroom and facility costs. The room cost at the Sheraton Sand Key Hotel I $189 USD plus taxes. The link to the Sheraton Sand Key will be provided near-term or you can directly call the hotel for reservations at 727-595-1611. The cutoff date for the special group rate is December 20, 2023. The group rate is under 2024 ISOE ALARA Symposium.
· Symposium Registration Link: 2024 Symposium Registration
· Hotel Reservation Link: Book your group rate for 2024 North American ISOE ALARA
· Hotel Reservation Link (NRC): Book your group rate for 2024 North American ISOE ALARA gvt. rate
The 2024 ISOE ALARA Symposium is sponsored by the North American Technical Center (NATC/NPRE), The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois. NATC/NPRE The Grainger College of Engineering is one of four ISOE Technical Centers that include Paris, Vienna, and Tokyo.
NATC's occupational dose radiological engineering analysis section is located at The Grainer College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. In 2023, NATC engaged a McMaster University nuclear engineering intern under the direction of Josip Zic to prepare CANDU dose studies for Canadian RPMs and regulators. In 2023, NATC, also engaged a French engineering intern in cooperation with the University of Michigan Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department to prepare US and Mexican PWR and BWR dose studies. The students’ studies will be provided to the symposium attendees. The goal of the NATC student intern program is to develop an effective supply chain of future nuclear power health physicists. The majority of the NATC ISOE analysts over the years are employed at nuclear plants.
The Information System on Occupational Exposure was established in 1992 by the Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) in Paris and since 1994, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna has co-sponsored the ISOE program, Official participants in the ISOE program include seventy-six utilities in twenty-nine countries (370 operating reactors, eighty shutdown reactors) and regulatory authorities in thirty countries. The ISOE database itself includes information on occupational exposure levels and trends at four hundred operating reactors in twenty-nine countries, covering about 90% of the world's operating commercial nuclear power plants.
Friday, January 5, 2024, Regional III and IV RPM Meetings with Invited Guests:
Attendees are invited to attend the Region III and IV RPM meeting on Friday afternoon. The meeting features observations from health physics Branch Chief and NRC inspectors of RP practices at operating nuclear plants. The meeting offers a “neutral ground” discussion between utility health physicists and regulator health physicists on observations during on-site plant inspections in 2022-2023. The implementation of new RP technology by RPMs is shared with regulatory health physicists. International regulators are encouraged to attend. This is a valuable opportunity for younger utility health physicists to learn from RPM plant status reports and regulator health physics professionals’ plant observations.
If Fleet RPMs/Regulators wish to schedule a conference room for a meeting, contact Amy Keep to schedule a room.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact either David W. Miller via cell: 217-855-3238/
email: dmiller@illinois.edu or me, via cell: 269-930-0753/email: almoeller88@gmail.com.
Hope to see you at the Sheraton Sand Key in sunny Florida in 2024!
Sincerely yours,
Amy Keep
NATC Executive Administrator/Event Coordinator
almoeller88@gmail.com
269-930-0753
Cc: Brad Boyer, Bureau Past Chair, TVA RP Director
David Hills, Branch Chief, Region III US NRC
Steven Garry, NRR, US NRC
John Palms, Honorary NATC Board Chair, Distinguished President Emeritus, University
of South Carolina, Exelon Board Member (retired)
Benjamin Chui, NATC Board Chair, ALARA Manager, Darlington, OPG, Canada
David W. Miller, NATC Regional Director, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois
