NRC Publishes Notice of a Petition for Rulemaking from AAPM - PRM-35-20 Requesting a Change to 10 CFR Part 35.57
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officially published AAPM's Petition for Rulemaking in today's Federal Register. This Petition was approved for submission by the Board at the August meeting.
The purpose of the Petition is to request a change to NRC's regulations that would allow grandfathering of medical physicists that were certified by either the ABR or the ABMP prior to October 25, 2005 to be listed on NRC licenses as Authorized Medical Physicists (AMPs) or Radiation Safety Officers (RSOs).
As you may be aware, NRC has only recognized ABR certification for medical physicists as AMPs or RSOs effective June 2007. A decision by NRC on recognized status for the ABMP is still pending.
Click here for a copy of the AAPM Petition and here for the Federal Register notice. Comments are due January 16, 2007. After the comment date closes, NRC will evaluate the comments and then make a determination to grant the Petition. If NRC grants the Petition, the next step would be developing a proposed rule to reflect the change requested by AAPM. NRC's goals is to have a final decision on Petition for Rulemaking's within a year of receipt of the Petition.
Although, this seems like a long process, we have achieved a major milestone in having the Petition published for public comment.
If you have any questions concerning this Petition, please contact Lynne Fairobent, AAPM's Manager of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at lynne@aapm.org.