THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                        (Little Rock, Arkansas)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                     August 6, 1999

         PRESIDENT NAMES RICHARD A. MESERVE TO SERVE AS MEMBER
                  OF THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

     The President today announced the nomination of Richard A. Meserve

to serve as Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The President will designate him as Chair upon appointment.

Mr. Richard A. Meserve, of Falls Church, Virginia, has been a partner or an associate at the Washington D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling since 1981. Dr. Meserve's practice focuses on legal issues that involve substantial technical content, including environmental and toxic-tort litigation, nuclear licensing, and the counseling of scientific societies. Since 1981, Dr. Meserve has served on a variety of committees of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering. He is currently the chairman of a NAS committee that is seeking to upgrade the protection of nuclear weapon material in Russia. Dr. Meserve previously served as chairman of NAS committees that examined the cooperative threat reduction program with the former Soviet Union, and that advised the U.S. Department of Energy on the declassification of information. From 1988 to 1994, Dr. Meserve was one of the co-chairman of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a group sponsored by the American Bar Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science. From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Meserve was legal counsel to the President's Science and Technology Advisor.

Dr. Meserve was formerly a Law Clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun, United States Supreme Court, and to Judge Benjamin Kaplan, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Dr. Meserve received a B.A. degree from Tufts University, a J.D. from Havard Law School, and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a bi-partisan, independent regulatory commission with responsibilities ensuring adequate protection of the public health and safety, common defense and security, and environment with respect to the use of nuclear materials for civilian purposes in the United States.

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