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Title: Victor Gilinsky Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1943-1984
Collection number: 82091
Creator:
Gilinsky, Victor, 1934-
Collection Size: 632 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box,
3 envelopes, 12 slides(265.3 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: Reports, memoranda, transcripts of hearings and telephone conversations, correspondence,
and printed matter, relating to nuclear power plants, mainly in the United States,
including issues of domestic and international licensing, fuel cycle and waste
management, emergency planning, safety problems, and the Three Mile Island nuclear
accident.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to
see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives
[Identification of item], Victor Gilinsky Papers, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1982.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
United States. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear energy--United States
Nuclear energy
Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.)
United States--Politics and government
| 1934, May 28 | Born, Warsaw, Poland |
| 1961-1971 | Physicist, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California |
| 1971-1973 | Assistant Director, Policy and Program Review, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) |
| 1973-1975 | Head, Department of Physical Science, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California |
| 1975-1984 | Member, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) |
This collection covers the period of Dr. Victor Gilinsky's service on the United States
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from 1975 to 1984. The Energy Reorganization Act of
1974 abolished the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), assigning its licensing and regulatory
functions to the NRC; the promotional aspects were transferred to the Energy Research and
Development Agency (ERDA). In 1977 the Department of Energy (DOE) was established to
co-ordinate federal energy research and development programs. Dr. Gilinsky was appointed
to the NRC by President Gerald Ford in 1975, and reappointed by President Jimmy Carter in
1979.
Dr. Gilinsky's special areas of interest included the conflict between nuclear
non-proliferation goals and the role of the United States as a major nuclear provider. He
often stressed that licensing delays resulted as much from the lack of design
standardization and variable levels of utility management expertise as from regulatory
caution or deliberate obstructionism. Dr. Gilinsky's tenure was controversial at times
because he expressed dissenting opinions in the public media and to Congressional
oversight committees. Within this collection, these opinions are found both in the
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS FILE, and in other series under relevant subject headings.
Areas of concentration of materials include the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island (154
boxes), the Diablo Canyon power plant (48 boxes), fuel cycle and waste management issues
(35 boxes), and the materials generated by the NRC Office of the Secretary (SECY Papers),
described below (107 boxes).
In some cases, brief notations indicate major issues, but the absence of such notation
does not indicate lack of significance. The notes are not comprehensive. Moreover,
materials relating to a given issue may be found in more than one location. For example,
generic safety issues are defined as industry-wide problems inherent in nuclear plant
design or operation (rather than deficiencies of individual manufacturers or managing
utilities), and are organized in the NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RESEARCH series. However, generic
problems manifest themselves in real incidents at individual reactor sites, so additional
information may be found in the REACTOR SITES series.
The types of material in this collection remain fairly constant from series to series:
primarily memoranda, reports, press releases, administrative law documents, speech and
hearing transcripts and letters, with some printed articles, clippings and other
miscellany. These materials have been organized to provide both subject access and
insight into the functioning of the NRC. Thus, most of the series are organized first by
subject, then chronologically, approximating the manner in which they were originally
filed. In some cases, however, materials which were assembled for a specific purpose,
such as research material, are left together, regardless of chronology.