UNITED STATES 

 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 REGION I 

 475 ALLENDALE ROAD 

 KING OF PRUSSIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19406-1415

April 6, 2011 

W. Lee Cox, Chief 

Radiation Protection Section 

Department of Environment and 

 Natural Resources 

3825 Barrett Drive 

Raleigh, NC 27609-7221 

Dear Mr. Cox: 

A periodic meeting was held with your Section on March 15, 2011. The purpose of the meeting 

was to review and discuss the status of the State of North Carolina’s Department of 

Environment and Natural Resources’ Radiation Protection Section. The NRC was represented 

by Michelle Beardsley and me. Topics and issues of importance discussed at the meeting 

included a detailed discussion of recommendations from the 2009 IMPEP review. 

I have completed and enclosed a general meeting summary. 

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 (610) 337-5214, or 

email: Monica.Orendi@nrc.gov to discuss your comments. 

Sincerely, 

/RA by Joseph Nick For/ 

Monica Orendi 

Regional State Agreements Officer 

Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 

Enclosure: As stated 

cc w/encl: 

James Albright, Manager 

 Radioactive Materials Branch 

 

 
 

April 6, 2011 

W. Lee Cox, Chief 

Radiation Protection Section 

Department of Environment and 

 Natural Resources 

3825 Barrett Drive 

Raleigh, NC 27609-7221 

Dear Mr. Cox: 

A periodic meeting was held with your Section on March 15, 2011. The purpose of the meeting 

was to review and discuss the status of the State of North Carolina’s Department of 

Environment and Natural Resources’ Radiation Protection Section. The NRC was represented 

by Michelle Beardsley and me. Topics and issues of importance discussed at the meeting 

included a detailed discussion of recommendations from the 2009 IMPEP review. 

I have completed and enclosed a general meeting summary. 

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 (610) 337-5214, or 

email: Monica.Orendi@nrc.gov to discuss your comments. 

Sincerely, 

/RA by Joseph Nick For/ 

Monica Orendi 

Regional State Agreements Officer 

Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 

Enclosure: As stated 

cc w/encl: 

James Albright, Manager 

 Radioactive Materials Branch 

Distribution: 

Michelle Beardsley, FSME Duncan White, FSME 

Karen Meyer, FSME Raymond Lorson, RI 

Lisa Dimmick, FSME Daniel Collins, RI 

SUNSI Review Complete: MLO (Reviewer=s Initials) 

DOCUMENT NAME: S:\State Agreement Files\North Carolina\North Carolina Draft Periodic Meeting Summary 3-15-11.docx 

After declaring this document AAn Official Agency Record@ it will be released to the Public. 

To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy without attachment/enclosure "E" = Copy with 

attachment/enclosure "N" = No copy 

ML110960343 

OFFICE DNMS/RI E 

NAME MOrendi/JLN For 

DATE 04/6/11 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY 
AGREEMENT STATE PERIODIC MEETING SUMMARY FOR

NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES’ 

RADIATION PROTECTION SECTION 

DATE OF MEETING: March 15, 2011 

NRC Attendees North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural 

Resources Attendees 

Monica Orendi, Region I RSAO James Albright, Manager, Radioactive Materials Branch 

Michelle Beardsley, FSME, 

Health Physicist 

DISCUSSION: 

During the 2009 Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP) review of the 

North Carolina Agreement State Program (the Program), the review team found the State’s 

performance satisfactory for all seven performance indicators. The IMPEP review team made 

two recommendations regarding the Program. On May 5, 2009, the Management Review 

Board (MRB) met to consider the IMPEP review team’s proposed findings regarding the 

Program. The MRB found the Program adequate to protect public health and safety and 

compatible with the NRC’s program. Based on the results of the IMPEP review, the review 

team recommended, and the MRB agreed, that the next full IMPEP review take place in 

approximately four years. The MRB also determined that a periodic meeting should take place 

in early 2011. 

This summary describes that periodic meeting. 

The following is a status summary of the two recommendations that were identified in the 2009 

North Carolina final IMPEP report: 

1. The review team recommends that the State strengthen its incident response process to 

ensure that incidents will be reported to the NRC as required by FSME Procedure 

SA-300. 

Current status: North Carolina acknowledged that reporting to the NRC was not as 

strong as it could be, as identified in the February 2009 IMPEP review. This was in part 

due to a misunderstanding on the part of the State regarding reporting incidents with 

twenty-four (24) hour reporting requirements. This was also in part due to a procedural 

ambiguity about which staff was responsible for making incident notification to the NRC. 

State staff handling incidents in the field thought that the Program’s Nuclear Material 

Events Database (NMED) Coordinator was responsible for reporting to the NRC, 

although that is not the NMED Coordinator’s designated responsibility or function. North 

Carolina stated that they addressed these issues by revising their procedure and training 

staff as to the following: 1) clarification on reporting requirements: specifically that the 

State is subject to the same reporting requirements to the NRC as their licensees are 

required to report incidents to the State, and 2) designation of the Regional Inspectors 

as the incident lead for all incidents in their Regions. The Regional Inspectors are 

responsible for determining if notification needs to be made, or was made, in accordance 

with FSME Procedure SA-300. 
North Carolina Periodic Meeting Summary Page 2 

2. The review team recommends that the State, to maintain compatibility with the NRC, 

make appropriate regulatory changes to resolve NRC-generated comments as noted in 

regulation review letters. 

Current Status: North Carolina currently has a plan in place to address NRC comments 

from letters dated August 15, 2006 and June 30, 2008 along with the five amendments 

overdue for adoption. North Carolina expects to submit these regulation changes to the 

NRC in draft in the fall of 2011. 

TOPICS COVERED DURING THE MEETING INCLUDED:

Program Strengths

A LAN based spreadsheet for tracking industrial radiography and reciprocal licensee activities 

within the State was developed in 2009. In 2010 the Program conducted inspections on an 

average of 50% of the candidate licensees (those licensees required to submit reciprocal 

notification or 3-day notification for fieldwork). This exceeds the IMPEP requirement that 20% of 

the candidate reciprocity licensees are inspected per year. 

Program Weaknesses

One weakness noted by the Program was with regards to rulemaking. The Program has begun 

to address this weakness by designating a staff member with rulemaking as a primary 

responsibility and developing a plan outlining the adoption of all overdue NRC regulations. 

A second weakness noted by the Program is in regards to the incident reporting process. As 

part of the effort to resolve this weakness, the incident database and corresponding incident 

files were audited. During this audit it was found that there were some minor problems with the 

database when staff closed out incidents due to the way the database was designed. The 

Program intends to replace the current incident database when they beta test NRC’s Web 

Based Licensing system, and to redesign the current database if the web based licensing 

system lacks the functionality necessary to replace it. 

Feedback on the NRC’s Program

The Program staff commented that the overall relationship with the NRC is a good one. The 

Program staff appreciates NRC funding of qualification training courses. The Program staff 

would like to see NRC continue to work on the development and dissemination of web based 

licensing. The Program also would like to see NRC revise their general licensing program so 

that provisions of the increased controls can be implemented for those licensees. 

Agreement State Program Staffing and Training

The Program currently consists of ten technical positions, one administrative support position, 

and one program manager. The Program has one staff vacancy which is a technical position. 

Support for staff training exists in the Program. Due to the acquisition of four new technical staff 

since the last IMPEP, training is a major part of the Program’s daily functions. The Program is 

working on cross training its staff so that they can do both licensing and inspection. 
North Carolina Periodic Meeting Summary Page 3 

Organization

The Program is administered under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources 

within the Division of Environmental Health. There have been no organizational changes since 

the 2009 IMPEP review. 

 Program Budget/Funding

As of July 2011 the Program will no longer receive appropriated funds to support its activities. 

Fee rules were adopted in February 2011 that fully support the Program’s activities. 

Inspection/Licensing Programs

The Program has approximately 760 radioactive materials licenses. The Program’s inspection 

frequencies are as frequent as NRC’s. There were no overdue inspections at the time of the 

Periodic meeting. 

The Program currently has no overdue licensing actions. The Program is looking forward to 

beta-testing NRC’s Web Based Licensing system. 

 Regulations

There has been one legislative change with regards to how the Program is funded. Based on 

this change the Program will be entirely fee based by July 2011. Also the Governor issued 

Executive Order 70, which requires that rulemaking in the State only be conducted if it is 

required by federal or state law, or is deemed necessary to protect the public interest. Rules 

shall not impose an undue burden upon those that have to comply with them and shall be 

clearly written, relevant, up-to-date, and based upon sound, scientific, technical, economic, and 

other relevant information. The executive order requires that the Agency Head sign a statement 

that the proposed rules and rule changes meet the regulatory principals stated in the executive 

order. Any impact on state or local government has to be fully vetted, whether or not the 

regulatory change is required by federal or state law. If a rule change proposed by a Program 

creates more work or extra cost the Program must justify why that change is necessary. As of 

the date of this meeting, North Carolina has five regulations that are overdue. 

The following regulations are overdue: 

• “Minor Amendments,” 10 CFR Parts 20, 30, 32, 35, 40, and 70 amendment 

(71 FR 15005), that was due for Agreement State implementation on March 27, 2009. 

(RATS ID 2006-1) 

• “Medical Use of Byproduct Material – Minor Corrections and Clarifications,” 10 CFR 

Parts 32 and 35 amendment (72 FR 45147 and 72 FR 54207), that is due for Agreement 

State adoption by October 29, 2010. (RATS ID 2007-1) 

• “Requirements for Expanded Definition of Byproduct Material,” 10 CFR Parts 20, 30, 31, 

32, 33, 35, 61, and 150 amendment (72 FR 55864), that is due for Agreement State 

adoption by November 30, 2010. (RATS ID 2007-3) 

• “Exemptions from Licensing, General Licenses, and Distribution of Byproduct Material: 

Licensing and Reporting Requirements,” 10 CFR Parts 30, 31, 32, and 150 amendment
North Carolina Periodic Meeting Summary Page 4 

(72 FR 58473), that is due for Agreement State adoption by December 17, 2010. 

(RATS ID 2007-2) 

• “Occupational Dose Records, Labeling, Containers, and Total Effective Dose 

Equivalent,” 10 CFR Parts 19 and 20 amendment (72 FR 68043), that is due for 

Agreement State adoption by February 15, 2011. (RATS ID 2008-1) 

The State will need to address the following NRC amendments in the future: 

• “Medical Use of Byproduct Material – Authorized User Clarification,” 10 CFR Part 35 

(74 FR 33901), that is due for Agreement State adoption by September 28, 2012. 

(RATS ID 2009-1) 

Event Reporting

The Program communicates reportable incidents to the NRC Operations Center and Region I 

when appropriate in a prompt manner. The Program has reported 23 events to the NRC since 

the 2009 IMPEP. 

Response to Incidents and Allegations

The Program continues to be sensitive to notifications of incidents and allegations. Incidents 

are quickly reviewed for the potential effect on public health and safety. Staff members are 

dispatched to perform onsite investigations when necessary. The Program is aware of the need 

to maintain an effective response to incidents and allegations and has procedures in place to 

ensure appropriate follow up action is taken. The Program conducts investigations of 

allegations and follows up with the concerned individuals regarding the outcome of the 

investigations. 

 Sealed Source and Device Program 

The Program has two fully trained staff and one trainee that review sealed source and device 

registration (SS&D) applications. In addition, they contract with a professional engineer at North 

Carolina State University to provide engineering reviews of these applications on an as-needed 

basis. Since February, 2009, one SS&D review for a new device was performed and the SS&D 

was issued. One application to amend an existing SS&D sheet was received but the 

amendment was determined not to be necessary. No deficiencies were identified during these 

reviews. 

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Program

Although North Carolina has authority for low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) disposal they 

currently do not have a LLRW disposal facility. North Carolina continues to monitor the disposal 

needs of their licensees and statewide low-level radioactive waste capacity. The State requires 

licensees that generate LLRW to submit an annual report to the Program. The data is compiled 

into a single LLRW report for the NC Radiation Protection Commission and the NC legislature. 

Current State Initiatives

The Program is in the process of going paperless to support web based licensing. The Program 

is doubling their capacity for performing inspections at generally licensed facilities by 

reassigning one FTE to performing inspections of those facilities half-time. The Program is
North Carolina Periodic Meeting Summary Page 5 

ramping up volunteers for their Team of Radiological Emergency Volunteers (TOREV) in 

partnership with the local chapter of the Health Physics Society for population monitoring during 

a radiological event. 

State’s Mechanisms to Evaluate Performance

Starting in 2009, the Program started performing yearly IMPEP like self-assessments to 

evaluate Program performance. The Program also conducts inspector accompaniments yearly. 

Summary

North Carolina continues to maintain a strong Agreement State Program. North Carolina was 

found adequate to protect public health and safety and compatible with NRC’s program, and 

received satisfactory ratings for all performance indicators during the last four IMPEP reviews. 

Based on current IMPEP policy extending the frequency of IMPEP reviews from four to five 

years for high performing Programs, NRC staff recommends that the next IMPEP review of the 

North Carolina Agreement State Program be extended and conducted in FY 2014.