NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

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 Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 08-056 March 14, 2008 

STATEMENT OF NRC CHAIRMAN DALE E. KLEIN ON THE 

 CONFIRMATION OF KRISTINE SVINICKI AS AN NRC COMMISSIONER 

“I am looking forward to the arrival of a fourth commissioner, Kristine Svinicki, 

who was confirmed to a term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the Senate early 

today. Her background as a nuclear engineer and a policy-maker at senior levels in our 

government will be a substantial benefit to the Commission. 

“I also want to commend members of the Senate Environment and Public Works 

Committee for their diligence in assisting the NRC by moving this nomination to the full 

Senate. Having a fourth Commissioner on board will enable the NRC to better 

accomplish its mandate of protecting people and the environment.” 

"I am grateful for the confidence the President and the Senate have shown in me. 

While I will miss the Senate and my ‘Senate family,’ I am looking forward to the 

challenges I will face at the NRC, which has important issues before it in the coming 

years," Ms. Svinicki said. 

Once sworn in, her term will run through June 30, 2012. 

Ms. Svinicki has a distinguished career as a nuclear engineer and in the policy 

arena, working since 2005 as a professional staff member on the Senate Armed Services 

Committee for the Committee’s former Chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and its 

current ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. As a professional staff member 

of the Committee, she worked on defense science and technology programs, and atomic 

energy defense activities of the Energy Department, including nuclear weapons and 

environmental management programs with a collective budget of $25 billion. She came 

to Capitol Hill in 1997, serving until 2004 as a senior policy advisor to Sen. Larry Craig, 

R-Idaho. In that capacity she was involved in the development of legislation and 

legislative strategies on energy, environmental and technology issues in the areas of 

telecommunications, energy research and development and nuclear waste management. 
Prior to joining the senator’s staff, Ms. Svinicki was a nuclear engineer in the 

Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. Her Energy 

Department career began in 1990 and also included nuclear engineering positions in the 

Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and the Idaho Operations Office. 

Before that she was an energy engineer for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. 

Ms. Svinicki earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from 

the University of Michigan in 1988. She is a member of the American Nuclear Society 

and served two terms on the ANS Special Committee on Nuclear non-Proliferation. She 

has served as a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Task Force 

on Global Nuclear Materials Management, and as an Expert Advisory Panel Member to 

the NRC on assessing the future of regulatory research needs. She was selected as a 

Stennis Congressional Fellow of the 108th Congress (2003-2004). 

She is a resident of Falls Church, Va. 

(Editors Note: the timing of Ms. Svinicki’s swearing-in has not been set.) 

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