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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II 101 Marietta St. NW - Suite 2900, Atlanta GA 30323
	CONTACT:	Ken Clark (Phone: 404-331-5503, E-mail: kmc2@nrc.gov )
		Roger Hannah (Phone 404-331-7878, E-mail: rdh1@nrc.gov )

No. II-97-29

April 1, 1997

Contacts: Ken Clark

Roger Hannah

Dr. Nils J. Diaz, a Commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since August 1996, will visit Virginia Power's Surry nuclear power plant near Surry, Virginia on Wednesday, April 9.

Dr. Diaz is scheduled to tour the plant, meet with Virginia Power officials and be available to answer questions from interested media representatives at 3:30 p.m. at the Surry Nuclear Information Center.

Dr. Diaz was sworn in as a 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.

For one year, 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.