Taking the Long View in a Time of Great Uncertainty Reflecting on the Health of the INMM

INMM unofficially became eligible thispast year, by some definitions, to becalled a “senior citizen,” having achievedthe age of fifty-five. For most people, andparticularly for many “graying” Institutemembers, this is the age at which webegin to reflect upon the importanceof maintaining our personnel health andhow external factors and events can challengeour previous sense of invincibility.When we step back and look at theInstitute itself, we see a similar situationwhere a number of recent external factorshave raised questions about the futurehealth for the Institute, not the leastof which are the economic issues facingall of our members; and other societalinfluences, including the restrictionsplaced on conferences in the UnitedStates due to some isolated inappropriateactivities by some agencies. Despitethese issues, the fundamental missionof the INMM remains sound, and theneed for its contributions to the “nuclearworld” is even more critical as we haveentered the second decade of the 21stcentury, and increased our internationalpresence.