The U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (USNRC’s) Radiation Sources Regulatory Partnership (RSRP) held its 3rd Regional Meeting for the Latin America and Caribbean region in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 6-8, 2018. The Dominican Republic National Commission of Energy (CNE) hosted the meeting that included 14 representatives of the regulatory authorities of eight Latin American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The RSRP is an NRC-funded program that assists member country partners with efforts to strengthen regulatory control over the use of radiation sources. The program has been very active in Latin America for the last 7 years and continues to expand; regulators from Brazil and Chile attended this regional meeting for the first time and identified potential areas of collaboration within the RSRP program.
Qi Tech, LLC. with assistance from is subcontract Advanced Systems Technology and Management (AdSTM) , provides the technical and training expertise for the RSRP. AdSTM conducted the meeting and provided technical presentations that focused on Licensing and Inspection in Industrial Radiography, Radio Pharmacy, and Advanced Radiation Therapy. These are high priority challenges for the regulatory authorities in many Latin American countries. A separate presentation described the Master Level Program in Radiation Protection implemented by RSRP at UDELAS University in Panama. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also participated.
The meeting included an overview of the RSRP program activities and accomplishments in Latin America and other regions. The RSRP partner country representatives presented the status of their regulatory program, discussed recent accomplishments, including completion of tasks under RSRP, and presented current regulatory gaps and challenges. The IAEA discussed planned activities for regulatory development in several Latin American countries through the Regulatory Infrastructure Development Program (RIDP). An RSRP expert provided an overview of the Advanced Regulatory Information System (ARIS) software and its capabilities for supporting a regulatory program, discussed recent improvements in ARIS 2.5 and the development status and capabilities of the OCCUDOSE module designed for tracking occupational exposure.