David Allard [retired] Director, PA Bureau of Radiation Protection

David J. Allard, MS, CHP, FHPS
Mr. Allard is a Medical Health Physicist, certified by the American Board of Health Physics for comprehensive practice, and on February 1, 1999 was appointed Director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection (BRP) in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He retired as DEP’s BRP Director in July 2022. Allard was responsible for: accelerator, X-ray, environmental surveillance, nuclear safety, radiological emergency response, radioactive materials, decommissioning/site cleanup, low-level radioactive waste and radon programs within the Commonwealth. He was also the technical lead on Oil & Gas industry radium and NORM/TENORM issues for DEP. BRP has about 100 technical and administrative staff in the DEP’s Central and Regional Offices, and an annual budget of about $15M. For over 23 years, Pennsylvania Governors appointed Mr. Allard the official State Liaison to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He remained the DEP’s Commissioner and Chairperson for the interstate Appalachian States Low-level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission (ACC) until fall of 2023.

Mr. Allard received an Associate in Applied Science degree in Environmental Health Technology from Hudson Valley Community College, a Bachelor of Science degree (cum laude) in Environmental Sciences from SUNY Albany, and a Master of Science degree in Radiological Sciences & Protection from U Mass-Lowell’s Department of Applied Physics. His graduate school research involved the scatter of X rays at diagnostic energies. Allard is a Fellow of the Health Physics Society (HPS), and was one of two State Members on the federal Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Standards (ISCORS) for 20 years. For over 15 years, and he remains, the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors’ (CRCPD) Liaison to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP).

In addition to his decades-long active membership in the HPS and CRCPD, Mr. Allard is a member of the AAPM, AAHP, ANS, NRRPT and SNMMI. Prior to joining DEP in 1999, he was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy for eight years regarding environmental and occupational radiation protection issues. Mr. Allard has been involved in the various aspects of governmental, industrial, reactor, medical and academic radiation protection for over 48 years. Early in his career he was the assistant Radiation Safety Officer and taught X-ray Physics and Radiation Biology at Albany Medical Center. In the 1990s he taught a 40 hour Fundamentals of Radiation Protection course in Boston. He has and continues to serve as: chair, member, or advisor on several national and international radiation protection committees. Throughout his career he frequently served as an expert witness and a pro bono consultant to: the IAEA, state, college/university, hospital, and other organizations. Allard has authored numerous professional papers and reports, and often lectures on a wide variety of radiation protection topics and concerns. These topics include: radiation detection, shielding, tritium, uranium, radium, radon, NORM / TENORM, X ray and accelerator protection, decommissioning, worker / public / environmental radiation protection standards and regulations, and the history of X rays and radioactivity. In addition to the CRCPD, Mr. Allard has been in various leadership roles with the HPS. He has also received several prestigious professional awards in the past few years.