Nuclear materials: Current and future regulatory challenges

Gregory B. Jaczko, Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, presented his plenary speech at the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management Annual Meeting. He talked about a number of important initiatives underway that reflect the Commission's continuing focus on guarding against security threats. The NRC and DOE have worked together effectively to deploy a national accounting system for special nuclear materials aimed at preventing or detecting their potential loss. The NRC chairs an interagency Radiation Source Protection and Security Task Force that evaluates and provides recommendations related to the security of radiation sources, including protection from potential terrorist threats. The agency has also launched the National Source Tracking System (NSTS), which is a secure, Web-based national registry that tracks radioactive sources from the time they are manufactured or imported through the time of their disposal, decay, or export.