NRC Commissioner Diaz to Visit Catawba Nuclear Power Plant

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II 61 Forsyth Street, Suite 23T85, Atlanta, GA 30303
	CONTACT:	Ken Clark (Phone: 404/562-4416, E-mail: kmc2@nrc.gov)
		Roger Hannah (Phone 404/562-4417, E-mail: rdh1@nrc.gov)

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No: II-98-12

February 20, 1998

NRC COMMISSIONER DIAZ TO VISIT CATAWBA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Dr. Nils J. Diaz, Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since August 1996, will visit Duke Power's Catawba nuclear power plant near York, South Carolina on Thursday, February 26.

Dr. Diaz is scheduled to tour the plant, meet with Duke Power officials and be available to answer questions from interested news media representatives at 11:15 a.m. in Room 153 of the plant's administration building.

Diaz was sworn in as Commissioner on August 23, 1996, after a distinguished career spanning a quarter century as an educator, research scientist, consultant and entrepreneur in such fields as nuclear engineering, nuclear power sources in space and medical and industrial applications of radioisotopes.

Before joining the NRC, Dr. Diaz was a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Florida and director of the Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute, a national consortium of universities and industry, which he founded. He also was president of Florida Nuclear Associates, Inc., a high technology research and consulting firm.

In the early 1980's, he served abroad as the principal consultant to Spain's Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and has consulted for the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.

Dr. Diaz received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Villanova, in Cuba, and both Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida in nuclear engineering sciences. From 1971-1983, he held a senior nuclear reactor operator's license from the NRC and worked on Medical Physics at Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami hospitals, among others.

Before joining the NRC, Dr. Diaz was actively involved in research of power sources in space, advanced energy conversion, advanced space propulsion, and in developing gamma ray spectroscopy for the detection and location of flaws in materials.