 I'd like to welcome you all here for this afternoon's session, our briefing on flooding and other weather events. Over the past few years, the nuclear industry has experienced multiple flooding and extreme weather events, and not just in the U.S. – I'm talking globally, the nuclear industry – which have caused the NRC to take a harder look at our oversight of natural phenomena. For instance, on March 11th in 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan was inundated by a tsunami after a very large earthquake occurred nearby, and the height of the tsunami exceeded the seawalls by about 27 feet. It caused extensive damage to the facility, most of which was the loss – complete loss of electrical power to five of six reactors, and the subsequent meltdown of three of those reactors. In the summer – it was an eventful year. In the summer of 2011, the Missouri River reached record flood levels and flooded the site of the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant for many months. And then in October 2012, Superstorm Sandy, one of the largest recorded hurricanes tracked up the eastern seaboard and created meteorological conditions that in the end were not too much of a challenge to the nuclear power plants, but in particular in New Jersey did cause some levels of flooding. So the NRC has been paying attention to this. Industry has been paying attention to this. In fact, right now, nuclear power plants throughout the country are working to reevaluate their flood hazard analyses, as mandated by us at the NRC, using the most up-to-date methodologies available. Some of those licensees have already completed those evaluations. Some are still in the process of doing those evaluations. For those that have completed their evaluations and where it was determined that the flood hazards were not bounded by their current design basis, they have instituted interim actions, and we have inspected those interim actions to make sure that they are adequate. So today, the commission is going to be briefed by two panels, an external panel and an internal panel, our own staff. Good afternoon, Chairman, commissioners. It's the tail end of a long day, and I know it's been longer for you because of the five of you have been listening intently. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss how the staff has addressed flooding and extreme weather events in its licensing and oversight programs. How nuclear power plants are protected from natural phenomena has received increased attention since the Fukushima event, as well as other major flooding events affecting nuclear power plants such as Blayet in France and Fort Calhoun in the U.S. Additionally, some national and international reports on climate change have indicated that more frequent and intense extreme weather events may challenge the operation and safety of nuclear power plants in the future. What you'll hear today is that ensuring plants are adequately protected against natural phenomenon, especially flooding and extreme weather, has been and continues to be an integral part of the staff's licensing and oversight program. You will hear that the guidance and analytical tools the staff uses to assure nuclear power plants are adequately protected continue to evolve as advances in science and technology are made. The staff is staying abreast of the latest advances in climate change, science, and assessing the need for further enhancing our rules, guidance, and analytical tools. To date, the staff believes our guidance and tools appropriately account for extreme weather events. With that said, we're working intently to further refine our ability to estimate the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Any new tools or guidance developed from our research activity will continue to account for the state of science in climate change. Let me turn it over to Eric, who will briefly describe the scope of today's presentation by the staff. All right, thank you so much, Mark. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. As Mark indicated, natural phenomena can create significant challenges that plants must be able to cope with to maintain safety. We have a well-established regulatory process that includes a licensing process that determines the appropriate design basis natural phenomena for the site and for the plant design. We have an oversight process that includes inspection activities to assess whether the plant continues to comply with its design and licensing basis. And finally, we have a research program that continues to monitor the state of the science and develop tools and guidance to support licensing and oversight. Each aspect of this process informs the other. And the process is informed by operational experience, by advancements in technology, by information that we gain from our federal partners, as well as from our international activities. Plants here in the United States have responded well to natural phenomenon events. From the seismic event that impacted North Ana that you heard about this morning, Commissioner Seviniki mentioned Hurricane Andrew hitting Turkey Point. Of course, Hurricane Katrina impacted three nuclear power plants. The general population probably isn't even aware of this. One of those nuclear power plants, Waterford, is located right on the Gulf Coast, within 20 miles of New Orleans. And finally, to the plants in the northeast, which effectively handled the storm surge from Superstorm Sandy, which you just heard about from the previous panel. While United States plants have coped well with these events, certainly Fukushima emphasizes the importance of remaining vigilant in overseeing plants and maintaining our understanding of the state of science for extreme weather and for flooding. Extreme weather creates conditions such as high winds and floods. To discuss how a regulatory program addresses all aspects of extreme weather, we take more time than we have today. So today's presentation will focus on flooding. Flooding is the one aspect of extreme weather that is included in tier one of the Fukushima activities. So we thought it was important to discuss flooding in some detail. Other elements of extreme weather will be addressed in our tier two review of the Fukushima action items. For our agenda, our first speaker will be Mr. George Wilson, and he'll describe our oversight process and some of the flooding related issues identified by our inspectors. The key lessons we have learned from those findings. Next, Dr. Chris Cook will describe the licensing process used to establish a plant's design, basis flood, and the evolution of this licensing process. And finally, we'll conclude with Dr. Bill Ott, who will discuss our research program and ongoing research activities in the area of flooding assessment and protection.