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Gilinsky (Victor) papers
82091  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content

  • Title: Victor Gilinsky papers
    Date (inclusive): 1943-1984
    Collection Number: 82091
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 633 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 3 envelopes, 12 slides (265.7 Linear Feet)
    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.
    Creator: Gilinsky, Victor

    Access

    The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1982.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Victor Gilinsky Papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Biographical Note

    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)

    Scope and Content

    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.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Nuclear energy
    Nuclear energy -- United States
    U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
    Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.)