News Archive

Latha Vasudevan, PhD, CHP, STC-HPS Public Relations Chair

The State of Texas Chapter of the Health Physics Society (STC-HPS) sponsored the Texas Radiation Regulatory Conference (TRRC) 3–4 November 2022 (Thursday–Friday) at the Doubletree Hotel by Hilton in Austin, Texas. This was a joint venture that included the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and Texas Railroad Commission (TRC). The chapter was proud to announce that we had more than 100 attendees including regulators, safety professionals, radiation safety officers, medical technologists, etc. The meeting provided a great opportunity for the members to network with a wide variety of people.

Meeting opening session
Photo courtesy of Danette Fennesy

STC-HPS President Brian Kelley welcomed attendees and provided opening remarks, which were followed by the presentations from regulators and advisors highlighting their roles and authority. The regulatory panelists were Lisa Bruedigan (TDSHS), Bobby Janecka (TCEQ), Leslie Savage (TRC), John Hageman (Texas Radiation Advisory Board), and Stephen Raines (Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission). Bruedigan also discussed the roles of the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) update was provided by Kevin Williams and included a brief summary of Government Accountability Office sting regarding vulnerabilities in the current system for verifying NRC/agreement state licenses. The keynote speaker during the Thursday night dinner banquet was HPS President Dr. John Cardarelli, who talked about the linear no-threshold theory and low-dose research.

There were concurrent sessions on both days that included the x-ray/fluoro/mammography registrant program. Continuing education credits were awarded for Texas Licensed Medical Physicist, Medical Radiologic Technologist, and American Registry of Radiologic Technologists licenses. For CHPs, a maximum of 13 units were approved for this activity. There were also vendors at booths showcasing their new products.

Altogether the TRCC was a grand success considering that the chapter was able to host it after eight years of no meeting. The full agenda and the conference highlights can be found on our chapter website.

STC-HPS Chapter Secretary Erich Fruchtnicht
Photo courtesy of Danette Fennesy

STC-HPS members networking with the vendors
Photo courtesy of Danette Fennesy

Some of the STC-HPS chapter leaders with HPS President John Cardarelli, left to right, Jay Poston, Bryan Kelley, John Metyko, Nina Gutierrez-Garcia, Sandra Ramirez, Cardarelli, Latha Vasudevan, Karen Blanchard, and Matt Amen
Photo courtesy of Latha Vasudevan