[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 25, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3982-3983]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-1730]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION


Staff Meetings Open to the Public: Proposed Policy Statement

AGENCY:  Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION:  Proposed policy statement.

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SUMMARY:  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposes to revise 
Section D of its current policy statement that NRC staff follows in 
opening to public observation meetings between the NRC staff and one or 
more outside persons. The NRC proposes to announce via the Internet 
from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov, its staff meetings that 
will be open to the public. The NRC proposes to discontinue announcing 
public staff meetings, meeting changes, and cancellations through its 
public meeting notice system provided by NRC's electronic bulletin 
board and a telephone recording, and through the Weekly Compilation of 
Press Releases and posting in the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR). The 
policy would also be amended to state that staff meetings will be 
announced as soon as the staff is certain that a meeting will be held 
and firm arrangements have been made, but generally no fewer than 10 
calendar days before the meeting. Also, the policy would be amended to 
eliminate the current practice of only posting meetings scheduled 
within 60 days.
    The Commission will not finalize revisions to the Policy Statement 
or discontinue its current methods of informing the public of open 
staff meetings until public comments have been received and evaluated 
as to whether changes in the proposed course are warranted.

DATES:  Submit comments by March 27, 2000. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission 
is only able to guarantee its consideration of comments received on or 
before this date.

ADDRESSES:  Send comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff.
    Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., on Federal workdays.
    Examine comments received at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L 
Street NW. (Lower level), Washington, D.C.
    A copy of NRC's current Policy Statement on Staff Meetings Open to 
the Public and this proposed revision to the policy statement are 
available at the NRC's rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. This site also enables you to submit comments on 
the proposed policy statement. Comments may be uploaded as files (any 
format), if your Web browser supports that function. For information 
about the interactive rulemaking Web site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, 
301-415-5905; email: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  John Craig, Office of the Executive 
Director for Operations, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Telephone: 301-415-8703: email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The NRC first published its policy on open staff meetings in the 
Federal Register on June 28, 1978 (43 FR 28058). Subsequently, the NRC 
published a new Policy Statement on Staff Meetings Open to the Public 
in the Federal Register on September 20, 1994 (59 FR 48340). Section D 
of that policy statement implemented an electronic bulletin board and a 
telephone recording as the primary mechanisms for announcing staff 
meetings open to the public.

II. Proposed Change to the Policy Statement

    The proposed change would revise Section D to state that staff 
meetings open to the public will be announced via the Internet from the 
NRC Web site, (http://www.nrc.gov). In 1997, the NRC began to announce 
staff meetings open to the public on the NRC Web site, in addition to 
the two mechanisms indicated in Section D. The public is provided 
access to the NRC Web site in the NRC Public Document Room, and may 
access it from personal computers as well. The NRC staff studied the 
use of the Electronic Bulletin Board and telephone recordings of the 
Public Meeting Notice System and compared this use with the same 
information provided via the Internet. The Bulletin Board averaged 33 
calls per month and the telephone recording averaged 49 calls per 
month, as compared to 1,465 views per month of this information on the 
Internet. It has become apparent that with the increasing use of the 
Internet to obtain information, the NRC Web site is the primary 
mechanism by which the public accesses announcements of NRC staff 
meetings open to the public. Additionally, the study revealed that the 
public does not rely on the telephone recording to determine if 
meetings have been changed or canceled. The public usually contacts the 
NRC staff person listed in each meeting announcement, or accesses the 
NRC Web site to determine if there is a change in the schedule or 
location of a meeting. Consequently, the Commission has determined that 
the Electronic Bulletin Board and the telephone recording are not used 
sufficiently to merit continuation. Furthermore, the NRC does not 
believe that eliminating the telephone recording will adversely affect 
the ability of the public to find out whether meetings have been 
changed or canceled. The NRC plans to retain the telephone number, with 
a new recording that refers the public to the NRC Web site and the 
toll-free telephone number of the PDR. For people who cannot access the 
NRC Web site, assistance on scheduled NRC meetings will be available 
through NRC staff at the PDR, by calling toll-free 1-800-397-4209.
    The NRC does not distribute a summary compilation of meeting 
notices in the Weekly Compilation of Press Releases; therefore, that 
provision in Section D has been eliminated. Also, because the public 
can gain access to the NRC Web site using a computer at the PDR, the 
proposed revision no longer requires that paper copies of meeting 
notices be posted at the PDR. Specific comments regarding the 
discontinuation of announcing staff public meetings through the 
electronic bulletin board and telephone recording and through the 
weekly compilation of

[[Page 3983]]

press releases and posting in the NRC's PDR are requested.
    This policy statement would also be revised to state that staff 
meetings will be noticed as soon as the NRC staff is certain that a 
meeting will be held and that firm arrangements have been made, but 
generally no fewer than 10 calendar days before the meeting. Under the 
current policy, the NRC staff is instructed to provide a notice to the 
public meeting notice coordinator at least 10 days in advance of the 
date of the meeting, with certain exceptions. The goal of that practice 
was to ensure that the subsequent administrative processing of the 
notice for public notification would result in the public having at 
least a one-week notice of the open staff meeting. However, the current 
NRC guidance for this policy, Management Directive 3.5, ``Public 
Attendance at Certain Meetings Involving the NRC Staff'', states that 
``[m]eetings open to the public should normally be announced to the 
public [emphasis added] and to the Commission at least 10 calendar days 
in advance of the date of the meeting. * * * The change to the policy 
would specify that the public can expect to receive notification of a 
staff meeting open to the public via the NRC Web site 10 calendar days 
in advance. The change will bring the policy statement into line with 
the Management Directive.
    Experience has also shown that sometimes a staff meeting that is 
going to be open to the public needs to be scheduled quickly, and thus 
time is not available for the public to receive notice at least 10 
calendar days in advance of the meeting. In these cases where an 
exception to the 10 calendar day policy must be made, the proposed 
change states that the staff will try to give notice as promptly as 
possible.
    The current policy also provides for such exceptions, but the 
proposed policy would tie the exceptions to the NRC's strategic plan 
performance goals. The current draft of the strategic plan includes 
performance goals to: (1) Maintain safety; (2) increase public 
confidence; (3) reduce unnecessary regulatory burden; and (4) make NRC 
activities and decisions more effective, efficient and realistic. When 
the final version of the strategic plan is available, the Commission 
will consider whether the performance goals in the plan necessitate 
additional changes to NRC's policy of opening staff meetings to the 
public.
    With respect to the third and fourth draft performance goals noted 
above, the Commission anticipates that they would be used sparingly and 
only when circumstances would not reasonably permit the 10 calendar-day 
notice. Comment is explicitly requested to identify circumstances in 
which these performance goals may justify an exception to the 10 
calendar-day notice period.
    To explain how these performance goals would be used to evaluate 
whether exceptions should be made to the 10 calendar-day notice period, 
the following examples are given. To maintain safety, it may be 
necessary to hold a meeting called on short notice to resolve a 
licensee safety issue. To increase public confidence, the NRC would 
hold a meeting as soon as is practical for a critical licensee safety 
issue requiring immediate attention even if the meeting notice period 
was less than 10 calendar days. To reduce unnecessary regulatory 
burden, it may be necessary for the staff to interact with an applicant 
for a license amendment frequently and on short notice in order to meet 
aggressive licensing schedules for high-priority reviews. The meeting 
notice would indicate that meetings will be held on the application for 
the stated period of time and that specifics on individual meetings 
will be provided with as much notice as possible. As shown in the three 
examples, the staff may have to provide less than the 10 calendar-day 
notice to make activities and decisions more effective, efficient and 
realistic for aggressive licensing schedules and unforeseen 
circumstances that require timely response.
    Also, the policy is revised to eliminate the current practice of 
only posting meetings scheduled within 60 days. This restriction was 
placed in the current policy because of limited computer storage 
capacity available when the Public Meeting Notice System was designed 
in the early 1990s.
    The Commission is requesting comments on the proposed 
discontinuation of providing notice of staff meetings open to the 
public through the electronic bulletin board and telephone recording as 
well as through the Weekly Compilation of Press Releases and posting in 
the NRC's Public Document Room.
    The Commission will not finalize revisions to the Policy Statement 
or discontinue its current methods of informing the public of open 
staff meetings until any public comments have been evaluated as to 
whether changes in the proposed course are warranted.
    Accordingly, the Commission is proposing to revise Section D of the 
Commission's Policy Statement on Staff Meetings Open to the Public, to 
read as follows:

Notice to the Public

    1. Meeting announcement information is to be provided to the public 
as soon as the staff is certain that a meeting will be held and firm 
date, time, and facility arrangements have been made, but generally no 
fewer than 10 calendar days before the meeting. Where a meeting must be 
scheduled but cannot be announced 10 calendar days in advance, the 
staff will provide as much advance notice as possible. Public notice of 
meetings will be made via the Internet from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov. Meeting notices, changes to scheduled meetings, and 
cancellations will be updated on the NRC Web site each Federal work 
day, as appropriate. Information regarding public meetings can be 
obtained from the Public Document Room by calling toll-free at 1-800-
397-4209.
    2. Meeting announcements will include the date, time, and location 
of the meeting, as well as its purpose, the NRC office(s) and outside 
participant(s) in attendance, and the name and telephone number of the 
NRC contact for the meeting.

    Dated at Rockville, MD, this 19th day of January, 2000.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 00-1730 Filed 1-24-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P