State Agency Program Reports to the Texas Radiation Advisory ...

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These positions will include the responsibilities of reviewing registration applications for facilitiesand individuals, reviewing procedures for training programs, and certifying entitiesand issuing certificates.• A new Group Manager (Health Physicist II) position was approved and has been posted. Theperson selected for this position will supervise the Laser Program.Radiation Policy, Standards, and Quality Assurance Group (PSQA)• Barbara Taylor has been hired as the Radiation PSQA Group Manager effective October 1,2010.• PSQA staff members have completed the laser hair removal regulations mandated by HB449.The rules were adopted and published August 27, 2010. The rule went into effective on September1, 2010.• PSQA staff members continue to take comments of draft rules to implement new fluoroscopyand CT initiatives in current rule and to develop new rules for electronic brachytherapy. Numerouscomments have been received on this draft rulemaking. The department conducted astakeholder meeting on September 3, 2010, for further discussion and comments.• The department hosted the NRC Licensing Procedures course and the NRC MARSAMEcourse in September and the NRC Well Logging course in October. Hosting these coursestypically allows us to have more staff members participate in the course than if the coursewere held elsewhere. This helps us get more DSHS staff trained in a more timely manner.Chris Myers has been instrumental in handling the logistics for the courses.Radiation Inspection BranchRadioactive Materials (RAM) Inspections Group• There are currently 3 RAM Inspector vacancies due to recent resignations. Two vacancies arelocated in Houston and one is in Beaumont. One of the Houston vacancies has been exemptedfrom the hiring freeze and is currently being advertised. The other vacancies aremoving through the exemption request process.• Inspections are being performed on schedule, and every effort is being made to ensure thatNRC’s inspection priorities are met while vacancies are being filled and new inspectors aretrained. Texas’ inspection priority system is more conservative than NRC’s, and the Departmentmay not be able to remain current based on the State’s system during this period.Mammography and Report Inspections Group• The Mammography Group is at full staff. The second Remote Inspector position was filled inOctober, and he is currently in training.• All certified mammography systems in Texas were inspected during FY10. Sixty-eightmammography inspections have been completed for FY11. No mammography inspectionsare past due as of the date of this report.• In May, the FDA requested information for the annual review of Texas’ status as an FDAapprovedcertifying body for mammography. The results of their review are scheduled to beready for discussion in November. A second request came in July, when the FDA requested a
copy of all records related to ten specific inspections completed during the contract year. Thereviewer’s preliminary response regarding those ten inspections indicates no major issueswith the data or our compliance with the FDA’s inspection procedures.• A total of 1,509 remote inspections were issued for FY10. One thousand ninety-four of thosehave been completed and closed. The program is currently waiting on responses from theremaining 415 registrants.X-ray Inspections Group• The X-ray Group has two vacancies for X-ray Inspector positions; one in Houston and one inArlington. Interviewing and hiring are expected to take place during November. Presently,we have one inspector working out of the Austin office who is still in training.• During the 2010 Regulatory Conference held in Austin on September 2–3, 2010, a specialsession for service companies and assemblers of X-ray equipment was held. The session waswell attended with good feedback.Environmental Monitoring GroupIncident Investigation Program• On September 20, 2010, the Agency received a phone call from one of our licensees thattheir radiography crew in Orange had been approached by an individual who first identifiedhimself by name as an agency inspector with the State of Texas and a few minutes later saidhe was the Radiation Safety Officer for the City of Orange. The individual approached theradiation barrier marker but did not attempt to cross it (the crew had not started testing yet).He was hostile in his words and actions, and the crew was suspicious. He asked one of theradiographers for his state card. In response, the radiographer asked for the individual’s credentials.The individual told him he didn’t need to see them. While the other radiographerwas contacting the licensee’s office by phone, the individual left the site on a bicycle. Locallaw enforcement was not called at the time of the incident because the radiographers did notfeel the security of the source was being compromised. The licensee had an idea who the individualmight be and, during investigation, the radiographers identified the individual from aphoto the Agency provided. The individual had worked for the licensee approximately tenyears prior. The individual is a certified radiographer and has been for over 25 years. TheAgency has contacted the Criminal Investigations’ Unit of the of the Orange County Sheriff’sOffice. Agency legal counsel has been contacted to determine an appropriate course ofaction.South Texas Project (STP)• A Federal Emergency Management Agency- (FEMA-) evaluated exercise is scheduled forOctober 27, 2010. The exercise is designed to test STP, local, and State jurisdictions’ responseto a scenario involving a release of radioactive fission products from a nuclear reactor.FEMA will evaluate the offsite activities in response to the scenario-driven events.
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Page 5 and 6: holes have been detected in New Mex
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State Agency Program Reports to the Texas Radiation Advisory ...

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