Glenn Ellmers
Senior Communications Specialist
The
NRC’s technical experts are highly educated individuals with a lot of
expertise in their fields. But getting them to speak in plain English
can be a challenge. That can be a problem because the public needs to be
able to easily read and understand the reports these experts produce --
explaining everything from whether a particular nuclear power plant is
safe to what steps the NRC is requiring to make sure potential safety
issues are addressed.
![letters]()
There is even a law—
the Plain Writing Act of 2010—that
requires government documents read by the public to be written in plain
language, to the greatest degree possible. (This subject also happens
to be a personal cause of NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane.)
The
difficulty is that the nuclear facilities we regulate are, well …
complicated! A power plant, for instance, may have many different types
of pipes, valves, switches, gauges and electrical controls. Each of
these parts must have a specific name that identifies where it fits in
the whole. All of which leads to a plain language pitfall that grammar
experts called “noun/adjective clusters.”
Here’s
an example from a recent NRC document: “a through-wall leak was
identified in the body of a Reactor Core Isolation Cooling System Steam
Supply Inboard Isolation Bypass Warmup Valve.” That’s a lot to swallow!
One
solution is to drop any non-essential terms, and then use prepositions
and other connecting words to break things up. So, “an isolation bypass
warm-up valve for steam supply to Reactor Core Isolation Cooling,” would
be a bit easier to follow. That’s still accurate but a bit less
overwhelming. And, depending on the audience, it may be the better
choice.
To
comply with the Plain Writing Act—and to improve the clarity of our
communications more generally—the NRC’s Executive Director of Operations
has instructed the staff to include plain language summaries for
technical documents that the public follows (mainly inspection reports,
significant enforcement actions, and generic communications to NRC
license-holders). A new memo reminding staff to use plain language will
be issued later this month. And our human resources staff have created
no less than five different training courses (some lasting two full
days) to improve the staff’s plain writing skills.
Our Office of Public Affairs is also working to enhance the readability of many of our publications – including the
Information Digest – by reducing the grade level needed to easily read the material.
We
are not 100 percent there yet, but the NRC recognizes the importance of
helping the public understand our documents, and we continue to take
steps to improve in this area.
No comments:
Post a Comment