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3 Welcoming Remarks David N. McNelis, University of North Carolina On behalf of George Russell, the Russell Family Foundation, and myself, I wish also to extend a welcome to this workshop. Since 1992, George Russell has promoted cooperation that will help develop mutually beneficial economic and political relations between the United States and Russia. Of special interest is the large amount of highly radioactive materials requiring final disposition that have accumulated in both countries. Our primary focus is on the transmutation of components of spent nuclear fuel. But our interests more broadly have included approaches to nonprolifera- tion of nuclear material, repository thermal loading, multinational approaches to fuel cycle management, development of risk assessment and risk manage- ment techniques, and with this workshop, remediation of sites with radioactive contamination. As a sponsor of this workshop, we look forward to the proceedings of the meeting, with site-specific recommendations from individual participants on remediation activities and technologies. The proceedings should be brought to the attention of the officials responsible for advising on and establishing national priorities and budgets. I hope that the effort will result in appropriate priority being given to the remediation of each of the sites that have been identified as case studies. I wish you every success in your discussions.