Browse by Tags

Scott Burnell Public Affairs Officer   Anything radioactive makes for good drama – or so many television and movie scriptwriters believe. “China Syndrome” in 1979 and “Silkwood” in 1983 are just two examples of movies with nuclear themes – reactors in one and materials in another. But how accurate are...

Glenn Ellmers Senior Communications Specialist   The NRC’s technical experts are highly educated individuals with a lot of expertise in their fields. But getting them to speak in plain English can be a challenge. That can be a problem because the public needs to be able to easily read and understand...

Eliot Brenner Director, Office of Public Affairs   Art Linkletter, a 1950s and ‘60s radio and television host, used to interview children for his show “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” In that spirit, at last year’s “Take your Child to Work Day” at the NRC, we seized the opportunity to see what kids knew...

Holly Harrington Senior Advisor   The NRC is expanding its social media program next week by launching a pilot of a live discussion platform known as NRC Chat. The first Chat is scheduled for April 30 at 2 p.m. EST on the subject of history of U.S. nuclear power with the NRC’s historian, Tom Wellock...

Ivonne Couret Public Affairs Officer   Are you interested in what President Jimmy Carter looked like when he toured Three Mile Island in the spring of 1979? Or see the change in fashion styles of NRC engineers over the past decades? These photos and more than 50 other newly digitized historical images...

Larry Camper Director Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection   At the NRC, we think of ourselves as an environmental agency. This view is included in the NRC mission statement: “To license and regulate . . . to ensure the adequate protection of public health and safety, promote the...

Arlette Howard Fee Policy Analyst Office of the Chief Financial Officer   It’s that time of the year, when we ask the public for their comments about proposed changes to our fees. The NRC is required by law to recover approximately 90 percent of our budget through fees. Each year, the NRC publishes a...

Lorna P. Kipfer RIC 2013 Conference Program Specialist   The NRC’s 25th annual Regulatory Information Conference is being held in Maryland next week, from March 12-14, with an exciting agenda. Attendees will be able to attend technical sessions on a variety of topics associated with operating reactors...

Thomas Wellock NRC Historian   Despite not seeing eye-to-eye on many matters, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, nevertheless, continued to exchange information about nuclear reactor safety even during the Cold War. Then the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and the information exchanges stopped. It wasn...

Jim Dyer Chief Financial Officer   The NRC today sent a Regulatory Issue Summary to its licensees, Agreement States and other stakeholders outlining the impact of sequestration on agency activities. The summary can be found here. Basically, the document says that the NRC expects to take a reduction of...

Note: Dr. Lindsay was honored this month with a Special Recognition Award at the 2013 Black Engineer of the Year Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Conference. Lindsay holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University. Haile K....

Adam Glazer Librarian, Public Document Room   The NRC hosts hundreds of meetings throughout the year. Many of the meetings are held so you, the public, can share your thoughts about nuclear power issues. While the meeting topics vary, the way to find out about them doesn’t — you check the Public...

Ian Fisher Sustainability Manager   As required by Executive Order, the NRC submits an annual Sustainability Plan to the White House and OMB. This plan outlines the agency’s plans to be a good environmental steward through efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, increase use of renewable energy and reduce...

Lauren Casey Enforcement Specialist Office of Enforcement   The NRC establishes regulations, inspects those we license to make sure they are meeting those regulations and, at times, steps in to enforce regulations that licensees are violating. This last activity – enforcement – is a very important part...

Eliot Brenner Public Affairs Director   There is no shortage of ways to keep up with what the NRC is doing. Certainly, this blog is one good way and subscribing to our Twitter feed – which includes all notices of new blog posts, press releases, YouTube videos and more – is ideal. But there are [...]

Darren Ash Deputy Executive Director for Corporate Management   The irony was not lost on us when we were told the live webcast feed for today’s Commission meeting on public participation wasn’t, well, actually getting out to the public. Obviously, we encountered technical difficulties. The contractor...

Lance Rakovan Senior Commuication Specialist At the NRC, we do our best to be open and keep the public informed about what actions we are taking and why we are taking them. We are also always open to suggestions on how to improve our communications with the public. On Jan. 23, the NRC will hold [......

Lance Rakovan Senior Communications Specialist   One of my jobs at the NRC is managing the agency’s Meeting Facilitation and Advisor Program. This means, I train employees to facilitate public meetings and recommend ways to make public meetings as meaningful as possible. One of the challenges I face...

Eliot Brenner Public Affairs Director   Two years ago, at the end of this month, the NRC made its first foray into social media with this blog. We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew we needed a new way to provide information to the public about – and explanations of – the important, but [...]

The terms “chilling effect” or “chilled work environment” are important ones for the NRC. And they’re not referring to the winter weather. At the NRC, “chilled” refers to a perception that the raising of safety concerns is being suppressed or discouraged – either outright with discrimination —...

One of our employees, Janine Dehn, was recently honored with the “Patriotic Employer Award” for “contributing to national security and protecting liberty and freedom by supporting employee participation in America’s National Guard and Reserve Force.” Janine was nominated by Guard and Reserve Specialist...

NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane stood before plant workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi and Dai-ni sites Thursday, praised their efforts after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and said the global nuclear community must learn the lessons unfolding from the tragedy. Macfarlane, who is leading a delegation...

Most people know that radioactive energy can be harnessed to provide electricity and even to diagnose and treat certain illnesses. But would it surprise you to learn that radioactive materials also perform an important safety function by lighting emergency EXIT signs? Look for the EXIT sign the next...

By now, you’ve probably noticed the new infographic panel on the NRC public website’s revolving section of news and events photographs. Complementing the agency’s efforts to be more transparent and broaden our public outreach, the infographic panels serve as a visual representation of “What We’re Doing...

Uncovering the real story of Joe Ball’s trowel required research at the Department of Energy’s archives, where I could get more information about the AEC’s move from Washington, D.C., to Germantown, Md., in 1957. The AEC’s move was precipitated by the Soviet Union development of thermonuclear...