The staff of Michigan's radiation protection programs is committed to the goal of modernizing and strengthening Michigan's radiation safety programs - an effort that includes bringing these programs into conformance with current national consensus standards through statutory and rules revisions, consolidating programs within a single department, and pursuing an Agreement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

On July 31, 2007, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed a "Letter of Intent", informing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Michigan would formally pursue the enactment of an Agreement to regulate byproduct material. A copy of that letter is attached.

The Letter of Intent neither obligates nor guarantees that Michigan will become an Agreement State; it will, however, cause the NRC to assign a project manager to work closely with us and provide technical assistance and support to us as we move forward. Much work needs to be done to accomplish this goal.

The Governor's Letter of Intent followed the delivery of a Report to the Governor by the Directors of the Department of Community Health and the Department of Environmental Quality. That report is also attached.

On August 8, we held an informational meeting in Lansing to discuss the Agreement State initiative. This meeting was held at the recommendation from members of the Agreement State Advisory Committee (ASAC), who were concerned that they could not adequately represent the views and perspectives of all of Michigan's licensees and registrants. About 35 people attended, the majority of which had not attended any previous meetings.

Following the informational meeting, the ASAC met to discuss perspectives on the informational meeting and to continue discussions on revisions to Part 135 of the Public Health Code (our radiation program statute), as well as possible approaches to rules revisions.