Senate Confirms Appointment of Svinicki as NRC Commissioner
Kristine Svinicki, a nuclear engineer and Senate staffer, has been confirmed to a term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. After being sworn in, her term will run through June, 2012.
Since 2005, Ms. Scinicki has served 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. In that capacity, 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. Prior to that, she worked as a senior policy advisor to Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, where she focused 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 also 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.
The timing of Ms. Svinicki’s swearing-in has not been set.