NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 09-198 December 11, 2009

NRC STRENGTHENS OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY WITH 

NEW AND ONGOING INITIATIVES 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is strengthening its commitment to openness and 

transparency through a variety of new and ongoing initiatives to help the public understand and 

participate in its processes. The White House is highlighting one new NRC initiative with a video on its 

Open Government Innovation Web page. 

“The NRC has a long history of, and commitment to, openness with the public and transparency 

in its regulatory process,” said NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko. “As an independent regulatory agency 

that prides itself on openness, we are pleased to be included in the President’s focus on open accountable 

and accessible government. I look forward to working with my Commission colleagues to make our 

decision-making activities even more open.” 

 

The newly unveiled two-minute video, available at www.whitehouse.gov/open/innovations , 

explains the NRC’s use of Web conferencing to bring meetings about possible changes to emergency 

preparedness regulations to more people. As part of the agency’s outreach efforts, public meetings were 

held in venues throughout the country. At each meeting, anyone with a computer could log on to an 

internet-based conference center and participate from any location – both hearing the content and asking 

questions and providing comments. 

Another new initiative is also aimed at enhancing public outreach and openness related to 

meetings. The NRC has created a program to train 14 staff members to facilitate public NRC meetings, in 

addition to their regular duties. They will help ensure meetings are effective, inclusive and fair, and 

increase the NRC's capacity to collaborate and solve problems with interested stakeholders. The 

facilitators serve as consultants to the staff members who run the meetings and help ensure that best 

practices are used appropriately to make meetings more effective. 

Recognizing the important role of the Web in openness and outreach to the public, the NRC 

commissioned a number of surveys and reviews of usability and content and is now undergoing a major 

redesign of its public Web site. The redesign, scheduled to begin in 2010, will improve navigation, 

appearance, content, usability and accessibility. Part of the redesign will include a significant upgrade to 

ADAMS, the agency’s online document management system, which will make it more user-friendly, with 

an improved search capacity. 

The NRC is using technology in a number of other public outreach initiatives, including 

transitioning to a Web-based distribution of agency correspondence related to operating reactors. This 
new distribution method allows the public to receive correspondence on a facility-by-facility basis 

through an interactive Web site. This new method greatly increases the ease and speed by which the 

public can access information. In a recent 30-day period, more than 17,000 distributions, totaling more 

than 200,000 papers, were made to recipients in 16 different countries. 

### 

News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: 

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE 

link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.