April 24, 2007

Robert W. Goff, Director

Mississippi Division of Radiological Health

State Department of Health

3150 Lawson Street

PO Box 1700

Jackson, MS 39215-1700

Dear Mr. Goff:

A periodic meeting with Mississippi was held on April 3, 2007. The purpose of this meeting was

to review and discuss the status of Mississippi’s Agreement State Program. The NRC was

represented by me, Leonard Wert, and Randy Erickson from NRC’s Region IV office, and

Shawn Smith from the Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management

Programs (FSME). 

I have completed and enclosed a general meeting summary, including any specific actions

resulting from the discussions. 

If you feel that our conclusions do not accurately summarize the meeting discussion, or have

any additional remarks about the meeting in general, please contact me at (817) 860-8116 or

e-mail MLM1@NRC.GOV to discuss your concerns.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Linda McLean

Regional State Agreements Officer

Region IV

ENCLOSURE: 

cc w/enclosure: 

Janet Schlueter. Director
- 2 -

bcc: (via ADAMS e-mail distribution):

LWert

CCain

RErickson

AMcCraw, FSME

SSmith, FSME

Scott Moore, FSME

SISP Review Completed: ADAMS: Yes No Initials: __mlm____ 

ADAMS: :Yes 9No Initials: _mlm_____ 

:Publicly Available 9Non-Publicly Available 9Sensitive :Non-Sensitive

DOCUMENT NAME: C:\FileNet\ML071140341.wpd

final: s:\dnms\ltrs-memos\

RIV:RSAO

MLMcLean

/RA/

 4/23/07

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY T=Telephone E=E-mail F=Fax
ENCLOSURE 

ENCLOSURE

Mississippi Periodic Meeting Summary

April 3, 2007

ATTENDEES

State NRC

Robert Goff, Director, Division of 

 Radiological Health 

B. J. Smith, Director, Radioactive Materials

Branch

Linda McLean, Regional State Agreements 

 Officer (RSAO), RIV

Leonard Wert, Director, Division of Nuclear 

 Materials Safety, RIV

Randy Erickson, RSAO, RIV

Shawn Smith, Agreement State Project 

Officer, Office of Federal and State 

Materials and Environmental 

Management Programs, (FSME)

DISCUSSION: 

The Mississippi Agreement State program is administered by the Division of Radiological Health

(the Division) with the day-to-day operations and is managed by the Radioactive Materials

Branch (the Branch). The Division also contains the X-Ray Branch and the Environmental,

Emergency Response, Radioactive Waste, and Transportation Branch. The Division is part of

the Office of Health Protection under the Mississippi Department of Health. 

Status of State’s actions to address all open previous IMPEP review findings and/or open

recommendations:

Recommendation 1: The review team recommended that the State take additional actions,

such as increasing salary and benefits, to stabilize staffing and ensure continued successful

program implementation.

Current Status: The Division had one salary increase since the last review; however, however,

the salaries have remained comparatively low to those in other neighboring States. Currently,

the Division has one vacancy. The Division was unable to find a qualified applicant for the

posted senior level position at the salary offered. The position was re-posted, but at a lower

grade level. A second vacancy was filled from within the Department. The individual will begin

training soon. Other vacancies exist within the Division (the X-ray Branch and the

Environmental Branch have two and one vacancies respectively). With the exception of two

supervisors and one senior health physicist, the health physicist staff has an average of 3.5

years experience. 

The Division conducted a salary survey within the Department of Health and found that the 

senior health physicist position is lower than many others positions within the Department (e.g.,

food inspector). In addition, the Division conducted a salary survey of surrounding States and

found that the salaries in Mississippi are below the average of the other States’ radiation

programs. With this information, the Division Director issued a memo to the Department on

April 2, 2007, requesting a realignment of health physicists’ salaries. The Director stated that a

letter of support from the NRC may be helpful. 
ENCLOSURE 

Recommendation 2: The review team recommended that the State ensure that individuals who

make allegations are informed of the resolution of their concerns. 

Current Status: The Division’s allegation procedure was changed to ensure that individuals

who make allegations are informed of the resolution of their concerns. 

Recommendation 3 (for the NRC): The review team recommended that the NRC provide

guidance to IMPEP teams as to how to document review findings for those States which have

not adopted the general license (GL) rule. 

Current Status: Determinations on Agreement State GL rules will be factored into the

assessment of the compatibility findings during IMPEP reviews by either of the following: (I) if

the rule is less restrictive, the State will be asked to address the areas that are less restrictive;

or (ii) if the rule is more restrictive, the determination on compatibility will be held in abeyance

until decisions on current GL-related petitions and requests are made. This information has

been provided to States, via All Agreement States letter STP-06-076, and to IMPEP teams. 

OTHER DISCUSSION TOPICS

Strengths and/or weaknesses of the State program as identified by the State or NRC including

identification of actions that could diminish weaknesses:

Weaknesses: The Division has had a large staff turnover for many years. The high staff

turnover was identified and discussed during the 2005 and the 2001 IMPEP Reviews. The

Division Director indicated that the State has had one pay increase since the last IMPEP

Review; however, the salaries have remained comparatively low to those in other neighboring

States. The challenges the Division is facing in retaining and training the current staff are

significant especially with the retirement of the Division Director in April. The Director stated

that Increased salaries is needed to help stabilize staffing. 

Strengths: The program is small; consequently, there is good communications between the

staff. The staff does both licensing and inspections. All licensing actions receive peer review

from other staff members before being reviewed by the Branch Director. 

Feedback on NRC’s program as identified by the State and including identification of any action

that should be considered by NRC: The Division requested that the “Diagnostic and

Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine Course (H-304)” and the “Brachytherapy, Gamma Knife and

Emerging Technologies Course (H-313)” be offered more frequently. 

Materials Inspection Program: The Division has no inspection backlog; however, this has been

accomplished by the Branch Director conducting inspections to keep up, and the Division

Director managing the regulation amendment updates. 

Regulations and Legislative changes:

The Division will need to address the following regulation in upcoming rulemakings or by

adopting alternate legally binding requirements: 
ENCLOSURE 

• “Financial Assurance for Materials Licensees,” was due December 3, 2006.

The following final regulation has been submitted to the NRC by letter dated March 22, 2007.

• “Requirements for Certain Generally Licensed Industrial Devices Containing Byproduct

Material,” 10 CFR Parts 30, 31, 32 amendments (65 FR 79162) that became effective

February 16, 2001.

Mississippi has had a general license registration program in effect since 1963. The rule

contains the basic provisions of the NRC regulation, but is more restrictive and includes

periodic inspections of general licenses. The Division Director indicated that Mississippi does

not wish to adopt a less protective general license rule in order to meet the NRC regulation

compatibility designation.

Program reorganizations: The Division Director is retiring at the end of April. 

Changes in Program budget/funding: The Division had a fee increase (50%) for fiscal year

2007. The Division is partially fee supported (40%). 

Event Reporting, including follow-up and closure information in NMED: All NMED reports were

closed and complete. 

Response to Incidents: The most event during this review period was Hurricane Katrina. The

Division performed outstandingly during this event. All radioactive material sources were

recovered. (The Division’s general license program was an asset in accomplishing the total

recovery.)

Response to Allegations: No allegations were referred to the Division for action during this

review period. 

Schedule for the next IMPEP review: FY2009