Tag: operating reactors

Five Questions With: Andrea Veil

Andrea Veil is the Executive Director for the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards

  1. How would you briefly describe your role at the NRC?

5 questions_9with boxI serve as the liaison between the ACRS and the NRC staff at all levels and the NRC Commissioners. I also manage the technical and administrative staff who support the ACRS as it meets its obligation to provide the Commission with independent and timely technical advice. By the way, the ACRS full committee just held its 638th meeting last week.

  1. What is your foremost responsibility at work?

Ensuring that the ACRS members have everything that they need to provide effective and timely technical advice to the NRC Commission. That means researching issues, getting answers to questions, pulling together legal and regulatory documents, talking to stakeholders, reviewing reports and all other kinds of support actions. The independence of ACRS is truly unique among government agencies. The ACRS provides independent advice to the Commission on issues related to nuclear reactors safety and security, and nuclear waste and materials, so facilitating the technical reviews and meetings required to fulfill the ACRS mission is of utmost importance.

  1. What is your most significant challenge in the workplace?

andreaThe challenge to continue adapt to agency-wide changes that may affect the ACRS workload and independent function.

  1. What do you consider one of your most notable accomplishments at the NRC?

I would say one of my biggest job successes is becoming the first female Executive Director of the ACRS since its beginning in 1954.

  1. What is one quality of the NRC that more people should know?

The NRC is a regulatory authority and does not have promotion of nuclear energy as part of its mission. Our stance is if there is to be nuclear power in this country, it will be done safely. We don’t advocate for or against nuclear power, nor do we have any say in the energy generation mix in this country (that’s Department of Energy). In addition, over regulation by the NRC is sometimes cited as the reason for the permanent closure of a plant. The decision by a utility to permanently close a plant is a business/economic decision by that licensee.

Five Questions is an occasional series in which we pose the same questions to different NRC staff members.

Get NRC Correspondence on Operating Nuclear Power Plants by Email

Christine Steger
NRR Communications Analyst
 

refresh leafNo need to wait for the mailman anymore. You can quickly and easily receive documents about any operating nuclear power plant you wish electronically.

This distribution process makes it much easier for anyone—licensees, local and state government, members of the public — to quickly get the information they desire.

To sign up, go to the Operating Reactor Correspondence page on the NRC website. The webpage is arranged by region and includes maps that indicate where each plant is located, allowing you to easily find the reactors that are of interest to you. The site also allows you to subscribe and unsubscribe from plant distribution lists at any time.

By signing up, you will receive all outgoing operating reactor correspondence originating from Headquarters, Region I, III, and IV. (Region II is currently unavailable) Correspondence includes, but is not limited to, license amendments, relief requests, exemptions, requests for additional information and public meeting summaries.

Not only is the process faster and easier, but it saves resources, too. In 2010, about 15,000 subscribers received electronic information – avoiding the production of over 5.7 million printed pages.

Refresh is an occasional series where we re-run previous posts. This post originally ran on  April 26, 2011.

 

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