Report of the INMM 50th Annual Meeting: The Price of Success

An outstanding meeting full of startlingevents beyond our expectations and some notso good—more later on!In 2005, Charles Curtis, president ofNuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), stoodbefore us at the Annual Meeting inPhoenix, Arizona, and challenged theINMM to consider a potential institutionalmodel for promulgating best practicesfor nuclear materials security. Hesuggested that INMM build an operationalcapacity in INMM to provide suchbest practices support globally on a fulltimebasis! He said “if not INMM, thenwho…” would do it? Curtis returned thisyear to open the 50th INMM AnnualMeeting, July 12-16, 2009, at theMarriott Starr Pass Hotel and Resort inTucson, Arizona, USA, where he reportedon the progress of that best practicesmodel, the World Institute of NuclearSecurity (WINS). He told us that the“…greatest source of expertise in nuclearmaterials management [resides] …inINMM” and that “…INMM is an essentialpart of WINS…” With such an invigoratingbeginning to our 50th annualmeeting anniversary we knew we were offto a great start.