UNITED STATES

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

REGION III 

2443 WARRENVILLE RD. SUITE 210 

LISLE, IL 60532-4352 

November 24, 2015 

Mr. Joseph Klinger, Assistant Director 

Illinois Emergency Management Agency 

Division of Nuclear Safety 

2200 S. Dirksen Parkway 

Springfield, IL 62703 

Dear Mr. Klinger: 

A periodic meeting with you and your staff was held on November 10, 2015. The purpose of the 

meeting was to review and discuss the status of Illinois’ Agreement State Program. The U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was represented by John Giessner, Matthew Learn and 

myself. 

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

will be taken as a result of the meeting. 

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 630-829-9661 or 

email to James.Lynch@nrc.gov to discuss your comments. 

Sincerely, 

 /RA/

Jim Lynch 

State Agreements Officer 

Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 

Enclosure: 

Illinois Periodic Meeting Summary
November 24, 2015 

Mr. Joseph Klinger, Assistant Director 

Illinois Emergency Management Agency 

Division of Nuclear Safety 

1035 Outer Park Drive 

Springfield, IL 62704 

Dear Mr. Klinger: 

A periodic meeting with you and your staff was held on November 10, 2015. The purpose of the 

meeting was to review and discuss the status of Illinois’ Agreement State Program. The U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was represented by John Giessner, Matthew Learn and 

myself. 

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

will be taken as a result of the meeting. 

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 630-829-9661 or 

email to James.Lynch@nrc.gov to discuss your comments. 

Sincerely, 

 /RA/ 

Jim Lynch 

State Agreements Officer 

Division of Nuclear Materials Safety 

Enclosure: 

Illinois Periodic Meeting Summary 

Distribution w/encl: 

John Giessner 

Matthew Learn 

ADAMS Accession Number: ML15329A170 

 Publicly Available Non-Publicly Available Sensitive Non-Sensitive 

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OFFICE RIII DNMS RIII RIII 

NAME JLynch:ps 

DATE 11/24/15 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY 
 Enclosure 

AGREEMENT STATE PERIODIC MEETING SUMMARY WITH THE 

ILLINOIS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY 

DATE OF MEETING: November 10, 2015 

NRC Attendees Illinois Attendees 

John Giessner, Division Director Joe Klinger, Assistant Director 

Jim Lynch, Regional State 

Agreements Officer 

Gibb Vinson, Head, 

Radioactive Materials Section 

Matt Learn, Acting Regional 

State Agreements Officer 

Kelly Horn, Head, 

Environmental Management 

Section 

 Mary Burkhart, Supervisor, 

Materials Licensing 

 Daren Perrero, Supervisor, 

Inspection and Enforcement 

 Sandi Kessinger, Supervisor, 

Materials Security 

DISCUSSION: 

James Joseph was appointed by Governor Bruce Rauner as Director of the Illinois 

Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) in January 2015. Joe Klinger remained as Assistant 

Director. Mr. Klinger is the State Liaison Officer and remains as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission’s (NRC) main contact and responsible party for the radiation control program. 

Illinois has approximately 638 specific licensees. 

The Agreement State Program is administered by the Bureau of Radiation Safety (the 

Bureau), within IEMA, led by Adnan Khayyat. Gibb Vinson is the Head of the Radioactive 

Materials Section. The Section consists of three programs: Materials Licensing, Inspection & 

Enforcement, and Materials Security. The inspection staff is mostly based out of the 

West Chicago regional office. Kelly Horn is the Head of the Environmental Management 

Section which works cooperatively with the Radioactive Materials Section. 

The State’s last Integrated Materials Performance Evaluation Program (IMPEP) review was 

conducted in July 2013. The review team found Illinois’ performance to be satisfactory for all 

performance indicators reviewed. The review team made no recommendations. Accordingly, 

the review team recommended, and the Management Review Board agreed, that the Illinois 

Agreement State Program was adequate to protect public health and safety, and compatible 

with NRC’s program. 
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Program Strengths: 

The experienced, competent supervisory and management staff is the most notable 

strength of the program. Many of the members have over 25 years of experience with 

the State. Program supervisors are very experienced and have maintained a strong 

radioactive materials program during a difficult budget period. 

The Bureau provides excellent support to NRC and other Agreement States with their 

thorough evaluation of proposed regulations and procedures. 

The Illinois orphan source program has been very successful, significantly reducing the 

number of unwanted, potentially dangerous, radioactive sources in the State. 

Program Weaknesses: 

The State is without a budget for the current fiscal year. Illinois State budgetary 

difficulties have negatively affected the program. Vacancies in the inspection and 

licensing programs have not been filled, resulting in increased workloads for 

supervisors and staff personnel. Specifically, a small number of inspections have not 

been performed in accordance with the appropriate inspection frequency. Additionally, 

travel issues have resulted from the lack of a current budget, including delayed 

reimbursement for employee use of personal vehicles, and for hotel charges incurred 

during official travel within the State. 

Feedback on NRC’s Program: 

State managers indicated that they appreciated the good relationship and 

communication that they have with NRC Region III. They were also appreciative of 

NRC’s funding for Agreement State training. 

Staffing and Training: 

Staffing for the Agreement State program remains a challenge with significant budget 

difficulties facing the State. One licensing position and two inspection positions are 

currently vacant and are not being filled due to budget constraints. The Assistant 

Director stated that filling the positions is a priority for the Agency. 

Many of the Bureau’s lead technical, supervisory, and management staff are eligible to 

retire within the next several years, and many of the Bureau’s junior technical staff have 

been recently hired within the last few years. This level of experience within the Bureau 

combined with State budgetary difficulties could lead to a significant knowledge gap if 

succession planning is not properly executed. The State is aware of this potential future 

issue and is taking actions to develop its junior technical staff. 

Program Reorganizations: 

The Bureau of Environmental Radiation Safety was folded into the Bureau of Radiation 

Safety as part of a consolidation effort. Additionally, a staff member was assigned 

responsibility for coordination of reciprocity requests and for the tracking of general 

licensees. This individual reports to the Radioactive Materials Section Head. 
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Program Budget/Funding: 

As mentioned above, the State does not have an approved budget for the current fiscal 

year. Agency officials are hopeful that the budget impasse will be resolved in the next 

couple of months. The Agreement State program receives approximately 88 percent of 

its budget from licensee fees. The fee-based funding level was increased from 

approximately 50 percent to its current level with a fee increase in March 2013. 

Materials Inspection Program: 

Illinois inspection frequencies are at least as frequent as found in NRC’s Inspection 

Manual Chapter (IMC) 2800. According to program managers, seven inspections are 

currently overdue with respect to NRC priorities. These overdue inspections are due to 

staffing issues and the resources needed to respond to an unusual number of events 

that occurred in 2015. The program conducted extensive investigations for three 

significant medical events which resulted in Abnormal Occurrence (AO) notifications to 

Congress. A lost source event involving a missing well logging source required 

significant resources performing surveys of roads and coordination with local, State and 

Federal agencies. 

New licensees are inspected within 12 months of license issuance, regardless of 

whether the licensee has received radioactive material. Reciprocity inspections are 

performed in accordance with the frequencies identified in NRC Manual Chapter 1220. 

Materials Licensing Program: 

No significant licensing backlogs exist; however, with the shortage of license reviewers, 

the State is prioritizing licensing actions with health, safety and security-related actions 

taking precedence. License terms were extended from 5 to 8 years in order to free up 

licensing resources for priority actions. An expedited license renewal program is being 

used for licensees whose programs do not have significant changes. 

A due diligence review is performed for new licensees and new radioactive material 

users. This review is an extensive background check. Pre-licensing visits are 

performed for all applicants unless they already have an NRC or Agreement State 

license. Financial assurance obligations are reevaluated during amendments that may 

affect surety and as they approach expiration. Illinois is aware of the recent 

Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation which inappropriately obtained a 

materials license from another Agreement State. 

Regulations and Legislative Changes: 

In September 2015, the State submitted draft versions of three regulation packages 

which were due for adoption regarding Part 37 implementation (RATS 2012-4, 2013-1, 

and 2015-1). The NRC provided several comments regarding the State’s draft 

regulations. The State is incorporating changes to the final regulations to address the 

comments. They did, however, provide feedback to the NRC that while they have 

implemented the comments, they believe that their draft language was superior to that 

in the Part 37 regulations. The Regional State Agreements Officer (RSAO) passed 
4 

these comments to the office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) for 

their consideration. 

The State does not currently have any overdue regulations for adoption or open 

comments with the exception of those discussed above. The regulation promulgation 

process in Illinois takes approximately one year to complete. 

Response to Incidents and Allegations: 

The Bureau continues to be sensitive to notifications of incidents and allegations. 

Incidents are quickly reviewed for their effect on public health and safety. Twenty-eight 

NRC reportable incidents were reported since the last IMPEP review. Staff is dispatched 

to perform on-site investigations when necessary. All of the events were appropriately 

reported to the NRC, and were properly entered into, and updated, within the Nuclear 

Material Events Database (NMED). Very good communication with Region III was noted 

during event response. The program managers have placed emphasis on maintaining 

an effective response to incidents and allegations. 

The Organization of Agreement States (OAS) proposed reactive inspection teams 

comprised of staff from both Agreement States and the NRC for event response was 

discussed. The RSAO indicated to the State that this issue is currently being discussed 

by OAS and NMSS. More information will be coming to the Agreement States in 2016. 

The Bureau provided feedback for enhancements to the NRC’s medical consultant 

program. An NRC medical consultant was retained to assist Illinois during recent medical 

event evaluations. The State was not satisfied with the quality or extent of the 

consultant’s review. This matter was forwarded to the NMSS Medical Team to address 

during their reevaluation of the consultant program. 

The NRC referred one allegation to Illinois since the last IMPEP review. The allegation is 

currently under review. 

Significant Events and Generic Implications: 

The Bureau identified three abnormal occurrences and investigated one significant 

source loss since the last IMPEP review. 

In March 2014, a medical event occurred at Affiliated Oncologists. The patient was 

prescribed to receive a total dose of 34 Gy utilizing high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy 

in 10 fractionated doses to the breast (treatment site). It was determined that the skin 

at the incision site for the catheter (wrong treatment site) received a dose of 100 Gy. 

The incident was included in the Fiscal Year 2015 AO report. 

In October 2014, a medical event occurred at Presence Resurrection Medical Center. 

The patient was prescribed to receive a total dose of 34 Gy utilizing HDR brachytherapy 

in 10 fractionated doses to the breast (treatment site). It was determined that the skin 

at the incision site for the catheter (wrong treatment site) received a dose of 130 Gy. 

The incident was included in the Fiscal Year 2015 AO report. 
5 

In June 2015, a medical event occurred at the Riverside Medical Center. The patient 

was administered 1,302 MBq of yttrium-90 microspheres through the wrong infusion 

site, leading to an unintentional dose to the right kidney (wrong treatment site). The 

incident was included in the Fiscal Year 2015 AO report. 

In October 2015, Wayne County Well Surveys reported a loss of a 111 GBq 

americium-241 well logging source. The licensee speculated that the source was lost 

either during transit to a well head or at the well head. The source has not yet been 

located. The State, coordinating with other agencies, performed extensive surveys of 

roadways in Illinois and Indiana during their investigation. 

In each instance described above, the response performed by the State was 

comprehensive in its scope and aggressive in its response time. 

Large, Complicated, or Unusual Authorizations for use of Radioactive Materials: 

Illinois’ significant decommissioning projects were discussed, including the West 

Chicago Environmental Response Trust (aka Kerr-McGee). 

The West Chicago decommissioning project recently concluded contaminated soil 

removal. The factory site soil decommissioning is completed. Groundwater 

monitoring and remediation efforts will continue for several years. Some river 

restoration remains to be completed, but all source term was removed. The total 

decommissioning project cost is estimated to be $1.2 billion over a 30-year span. 

Sealed Sources and Devices: 

IEMA has an active sealed sources and devices (SS&D) program which issues several 

amendments per year. No backlogs were noted. 

CONCLUSION: 

The Illinois Agreement State Program remains a very active, strong, stable program with 

excellent management support. Recent staffing changes have left the licensing and 

inspection program with three vacancies and put a strain on the entire program. The 

training level for staff members is on target. Illinois managers indicated that they will 

continue to support the IMPEP program and NRC/Agreement State working groups, to the 

extent practical. 

NRC staff recommends that the next IMPEP review to be held, as currently scheduled, in 

2018.