Abstract:

Health physicists provide direct support to the safety and security mission of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This presentation will provide an overview of the different roles and responsibilities that health physicists can fulfill. One member will share her experiences, spanning over a decade, in policy and guidance development, rulemaking, oversight and enforcement.

Biosketch:

Sophie Holiday serves as the Technical Assistant for the Division of Preparedness and Response (DPR), within the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR) at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Her primary duties include: performing technical and analytical reviews of emergency preparedness and incident response work products; performance management; budget formulation and execution; strategic workforce planning; development and implementation of internal controls, objectives and key results; and oversight of division metrics and deadlines.

Previously, Ms. Holiday served as one of the Enforcement Coordinators for the Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards (NMSS). In this role, she reviewed, evaluated, and provided input on NMSS-led and regional enforcement cases related to medical, industrial, academic, broad scope, and fuel facility licensees, as well as changes to the NRC’s Enforcement Policy and Enforcement Manual.

Ms. Holiday’s career includes serving in roles such as: the Coordinator and Designated Federal Officer for the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI); as a Regional Coordinator where she reviewed and analyzed materials events reported to the NRC from NRC and Agreement State licensees; and as a member on the Medical Radiation Safety Team where she provided programmatic oversight of and policy direction to regional offices for the NRC’s Policy on the Medical Use of Radioactive Materials and authored numerous customized licensing guidance documents for emerging medical technologies.

Ms. Holiday has also had the unique opportunity to complete a first-of-its-kind, rotation to an Agreement State, the North Carolina Radioactive Protection Section. During this rotation, she served as a materials license reviewer, issuing over 50 materials licensing actions; conducted inspections for medical, academic, and broad scope licensees; and participated on the North Carolina response team for incident response and emergency preparedness. Between 2011 – 2019, Ms. Holiday also completed rotations to the NRC’s Office of Enforcement; the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation; NMSS, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Management Programs; and the Office of the Commission – Commissioner William D. Magwood, IV.

In May 2010, Ms. Holiday received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry, with a concentration in Radiochemistry, from South Carolina State University (Orangeburg, South Carolina). In August 2021, Ms. Holiday completed the inaugural cohort for the Center for Defense and Homeland Security’s Radiological Emergency Preparedness Early Career Education Program (Monterey, California).

Outside of the NRC, Ms. Holiday enjoys baking, working out, teaching English to non-native English speakers, reading and spending time with her husband (Justin) and two daughters (Ava and Lula).