Dear Radiation Protection Managers, Regulators, and Vendors
Re: 2026 North American Radiation Safety & Technology Exhibition Announcement and Call for Papers (January 13 – January 15, 2026)
On behalf of the NATC NPRE Technical Program Committee, I am pleased to invite you to attend the 2026 North American Radiation Safety & Technology Exhibition Symposium to be held January 13 - 15, 2026. The 2026 Symposium will be held in-person at the Sheraton Sand Key, Florida, 1160 Gulf Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767; phone 727-595-1611. The 2026 North American Radiation Safety & Technology Exhibition Symposium will continue to be the premier regulatory/RPM meeting of 2026. The Honorable David A. Wright, US NRC Commission Chair, has been the invited plenary speaker for the past three January symposiums. The Technical Program Committee has invited Commissioner Wright to speak in January 2026. The NATC Board has selected the following theme for the 2026 symposium:
Change Management in Radiation Protection Programs at NPPs
The objective of the 2026 symposium is to provide presentations on recent RP OE, good practices and lessons learned especially in the current change management initiatives to promote safe and efficient nuclear power operations.
Since 1992, the Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois has been the host university for the North American Technical Center, Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) OECD NEA /IAEA (Website: https:/isoe-network.net). NATC is composed of Canadian, Mexican and USA nuclear utilities and regulatory authorities. The NATC Board founded the ISOE ALARA symposium in 1997. ALARA symposia have been held annually since 1999 (the European, Asian and Vienna ISOE technical Centers also conduct ISOE ALARA Symposia).
The symposium program is designed to provide solutions to dose reduction and RP management challenges/solutions experienced in 2025 especially during refueling or maintenance outages. Please contact Amy Keep (almoeller88@gmail.com) or David W. Miller (Dmiller@illinois.edu), if you have a topic that you would like the Technical Program Committee to consider for the 2026 ALARA Symposium agenda.
The afternoon session of the second day is focused on regulatory issues from CNSC and US NRC. A CNSC speaker is being invited to provide an update on Canadian RP regulatory experience. U.S. NRC health physicists from headquarters and regions will be providing highlights of new health physics related regulations and inspection criteria of interest to Radiation Protection Departments. Historically, the greatest attendee interest was for the NRC HP Inspectors’ summary of ALARA and RP findings. Over 10 U.S. NRC regulators from headquarters and regions plan to attend the January 2026 Symposium. The objective of sharing of ALARA lessons learned is to prevent the recurrence of RP/ALARA OEs.
The NATC NPRE Technical Program Committee is planning the 2026 Symposium and associated Regional RPM meetings. The 2026 agenda will be sent by early November 2025 for your planning purposes. Nominations for 2025 World Class ALARA Performer, 2025 RP Professional of the Year and John M. Palms Outstanding Innovation Awards are being solicited from September to December 2025. Please watch for the respective nomination forms/questionnaires.
The January 2026 symposium will include the following schedule:
Tuesday, January 13, 2026 (8 am – 5 pm*)
Day 1 Including Plenary speakers (U.S. NRC Commission Chair (invited), 2025 World Class Performance ALARA Award, and RPM presentations on outage OEs lessons learned.
Wednesday, January 14, 2026 (8 am – 5 pm*)
Day 2 Morning sessions on RP ALARA Challenges and Successes. The afternoon session includes U.S. NRC regulatory presentations on observations from U.S. NRC ALARA inspection programs, revisions to regulations and NRC RP/ALARA findings in 2023-2025. Feedback from the Canadian RP inspection program will also be solicited.
Thursday, January 15, 2026 (8 am – 12 pm*)
Day 3 2026 Symposium (Industry Speakers (NEI, EPRI, INPO and RPM Operating Radiological Events/ Lessons Learned).
Thursday, January 15, 2026 (1pm to 5 pm*)
Region III RPM Meeting (Observations from NRC Branch Chief and RP Inspectors in Control of RP Programs).
* All times are in the Eastern Standard Time Zone.
Symposium Highlights:
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 2026 Symposium will focus on the 2025 refueling outage experience, CANDU refurbishments and mentoring on HP innovative technology. 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 RP items of importance to Station ALARA Committee Members on the latest NRC regulations and RP OEs. The feedback from attending maintenance and outage managers has been positive.
The 2026 winter Radiation Safety & Technology Exhibition 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. Canadian ISOE members have completed 2025 CANDU dose trends for operating units and units under refurbishment. NATC student interns have developed ISOE Information Sheets (IFS) and analyses of major refueling outage tasks to share consolidated benchmarking RWP/REP dose & person-hours information in preparation for spring 2026 refueling and maintenance outages. The IFS will be made available to ISOE 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 dose goals/targets.
Call for Papers:
Authors of papers for the North American Radiation Safety & Technology Exhibition Symposium are requested to send their paper titles and abstracts to Amy Keep at almoeller88@gmail.com and David W. Miller at dmiller@illinois.edu. Additional information for authors will be provided to you by the 2026 Technical Program Committee.
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.
Symposium Registration: Symposium Registration
Hotel Reservations: Book your group rate for 2026 ISOE Alara Symposium attendee blk
Hotel Reservations (Govt Rate): : Book your group rate for 2026 ISOE Alara Symposium Gov blk
Hope to see you at the Sheraton Sand Key in sunny Florida in 2026!
Sincerely yours,
Amy Keep
NATC Executive Administrator/Event Coordinator
almoeller88@gmail.com
269-930-0753
Cc: Joseph Jaegers, Dresden RPM, Constellation & NATC Board Member
Herbert Engstrom, Palo Verde RPM, APS & NATC Board Member
Ben Chui, OPG ALARA Manager, Canadian Country Coordinator & NATC Board Member
John Moser, RPM, LaSalle County, Constellation & Region III RPM Meeting Chair
Jennifer Allen, Senior Health Physicist, Point Lepreau, & NATC Board Member
David W. Miller, NATC Regional Director, NPRE, University of Illinois
Casper Sun, CHP, NRC Research, ISOE Coordinator
John M. Palms, PhD, Distinguished President Emeritus, University of South Carolina & NATC Honorary Board Chair
