Commissioner of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Kristine Svinicki Visits Warsaw

15 February 2012

Kristine Svinicki, Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will visit Warsaw from February 16-18. Commissioner Svinicki will give a lecture at the Warsaw University of Technology on February 17, from 11:30-12:30. Her presentation will focus on the importance of transparency in nuclear energy, particularly the importance of providing opportunities for the public and stakeholders to participate in the regulatory process. There will be a press availability after the presentation.

“In the last two years, Poland and the United States have concluded three agreements to deepen our energy cooperation,” said U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein. “Commissioner Svinicki’s visit provides yet another occasion for Poles and Americans to solidify and expand our energy partnership.”

During her visit, Commissioner Svinicki will meet with Polish government officials, visit the Polish Atomic Energy Agency, and take a tour of the Maria nuclear research reactor in Świerk. Ambassador Feinstein will host the Commissioner at his residence for a special panel discussion about Women in Science, where she will be joined on a panel by Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance Maria Elżbieta Orłowska and Professor Elżbieta Frąckowiak of the Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry at the Poznań University of Technology.

A nuclear engineer and policy advisor, Kristine Svinicki was sworn in as a Commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2008. She spent over a decade as a staff member in the United States Senate, where she served as a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Ms. Svinicki was responsible for the Committee’s portfolio of defense science and technology programs and policies, and for the atomic energy defense activities of the U.S. Department of Energy, including nuclear weapons, nuclear security, and environmental programs. Previously, Ms. Svinicki worked as a nuclear engineer in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Washington, D.C. Offices of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, and of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, as well as its Idaho Operations Office, in Idaho Falls, Idaho.