Press Release-IV-98-001, NRC Chairman Jackson and International Nuclear Regulators Schedule News Conference in Walnut Creek

Press Release-IV-98-001 NRC Chairman Jackson and International Nuclear Regulators Schedule News Conference in Walnut Creek

ML003707903
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Issue date:	01/06/1998
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
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Category:Press Release
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Press Release-IV-98-001
Download: ML003707903 (2)

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Public Affairs, Region IV Walnut Creek Field Office 1450 Maria Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-5378 CONTACT: Mark Hammond Jan. 6, 1998 Office: (510) 975-0254 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Home: (415) 674-1024 RIV 98-01 NRC CHAIRMAN JACKSON AND INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR REGULATORS SCHEDULE NEWS CONFERENCE IN WALNUT CREEK Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will hold a news conference this week in Walnut Creek, California, during a meeting of top officials of the nuclear regulatory agencies of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The news conference will be at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, January 8, at the NRCs Region IV Field Office in Walnut Creek. The NRC office is located at 1450 Maria Lane, in the Creekside Oaks office park, off Newell Avenue between Broadway and South Main Street in downtown Walnut Creek. Chairman Jackson will make some brief introductory remarks, and then will be available, along with the other INRA members, for questions from the media.

The news conference will take place on the first day of a meeting of the International Nuclear Regulators Association (INRA). The Association was created in May 1997 in an effort to enhance international cooperation and communications of a high policy level among nuclear regulators, and thereby improve nuclear safety and the regulation of nuclear reactors and materials worldwide. Dr. Jackson is the INRA Chairman.

Besides the meeting at the NRCs Walnut Creek office, officials will also visit two U.S.

Department of Energy (DOE) facilities: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the site northwest of Las Vegas being evaluated for its suitability by DOE as a permanent geologic repository for the spent fuel generated in U.S. commercial nuclear reactors. NRC would be the licensing agency for the repository and has been monitoring DOEs studies at Yucca Mountain. NRC has begun identifying key technical issues associated with the licensing of a geologic repository at that site.

During the meeting, top regulators will continue discussions, begun at the INRAs inaugural meeting last May in Paris, on national trends in electric generation and their effect on nuclear safety. It will also focus on how national regulatory approaches impact nuclear safety and the identification of key elements in nuclear safety regulation worldwide.

2 The INRA meets twice a year. Besides Dr. Jackson, INRA members are:

Canada--Dr. Agnes Bishop, President and Chief Executive Officer, Atomic Energy Control Board.

France--Andre-Claude Lacoste, Director, Directorate for the Safety of Nuclear Installations.

Germany--Gerald Hennenhofer, Director-General for Nuclear Safety, Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Japan--Yasumasa Togo, Chairman, Nuclear Safety Commission Tomihiro Taniguchi, Deputy Director-General, Ministry of International Trade and Industry Spain--Dr. Juan Manuel Kindelan, President, Council for Nuclear Safety Sweden--Lars Hogberg, Director-General, Nuclear Power Inspectorate United Kingdom--Dr. Sam A. Harbison, Director and Chief Inspector, Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Health and Safety Executive