NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200

 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov 

 Web Site: www.nrc.gov

No. 02-010 January 28, 2002

NRC TO REVISE MEETING POLICY TO

 ENHANCE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided to revise its meeting policy to encourage and

enhance the opportunity for participation by members of the public, as well as their ability to interact

with the NRC in a timely manner. 

The revised policy, the result of an ongoing initiative by the agency to improve communications

with the public, will identify three categories of NRC meetings and outline public participation

opportunities for each. It also will enable people to listen and participate by telephone in NRCsponsored public meetings, when requested and feasible. In public meeting notices and other

appropriate documents, the NRC will encourage the public to provide comments or questions in writing

as a means of facilitating public participation and staff follow-up. 

The first category of NRC meetings under the revised policy involves those typically held with

one licensee, vendor, applicant or potential applicant or petitioner to discuss regulatory issues

addressing their specific facility, certificate of compliance, license or license application. The intended

objective for the public at this type of meeting is to observe NRCís interactions with licensees, and to

obtain factual information to assist in understanding regulatory issues. At such meetings the public will

be afforded an opportunity to communicate with the NRC before the session is adjourned. A licensee

may respond to questions, if it chooses.

For those meetings of substantial length -- those of more than two hours duration-- the policy

will encourage providing one or more opportunities for the public to speak with the NRC staff, before

the meeting concludes. Examples of meetings in this category could include annual public meetings

under the reactor oversight process, regulatory conferences, pre-decisional enforcement conferences,

reactor re-start meetings, as well as those held on licensing actions (or applications), renewals and

amendments.

The second category of meetings involves those usually held with a group of industry

representatives, licensees, vendors or non-governmental organizations. The objective at these meetings

is for the NRC to solicit feedback from the groups on issues that could potentially affect more than one

licensee. At this type of meeting, the public will be encouraged to discuss regulatory issues with agency
officials at designated points on the agenda. Generally, there will be more opportunities provided for

the public to ask questions and offer comments than in the first category of meetings.

The NRC staff will answer questions at these meetings, with those that cannot be answered

assigned to a designated staff person for prompt follow-up. Examples of this category of meeting could

include task force groups, industry groups, such as the Nuclear Energy Institute or ownersí groups,

public interest and citizen group discussions that focus on issues that could apply to several facilities,

such as plant system aging, license renewal, decommissioning, or spent fuel storage.

The third and final category of meetings consists of those conducted for the general public,

representatives of non-government organizations, private citizens or interested parties, or various

businesses or industries. These meetings allow the NRC to work directly with members of the public to

ensure their issues and concerns are understood and considered. Such meetings provide the most

comprehensive participation opportunities for members of the public to comment and ask questions. 

NRC staffers will be on hand and will be assigned follow up on specific public inquiries. Examples of

meetings in this category could include town hall or roundtable discussions, Environmental Impact

Statement scoping meetings, workshops, the Regulatory Information Conference, the Nuclear Safety

Research Conference, or proposed rulemaking meetings. 

A new brochure will describe the public meeting process, levels of participation and follow-up

responsibilities by NRC. The brochure will note that meeting summaries will be made publicly

available to ensure that public concerns were heard. Further, the brochure will reflect NRCís

commitment to consider issues raised at public meetings in its oversight role, or in a particular

rulemaking or licensing matter. Feedback forms also will be provided to attendees to identify any

planned improvements. Under the revised policy, members of the public may continue to send their

concerns in letters to NRC for consideration. The agencyís ongoing efforts to enhance public

participation will include seeking public comment on the policy after one year of implementation. 

###