NRC Blog Update 10/9 The NRC Commission Has Held 5,000 Public Meetings—Give or Take

The NRC Commission Has Held 5,000 Public Meetings—Give or Take

Leave a comment Posted by Moderator on October 9, 2014

Annette Vietti-Cook

Secretary of the Commission

After one of our commissioners noted a milestone in July – the 5,000^th meeting of the NRC’s Commission – we thought it might be useful to share what the Secretary of the Commission does behind-the-scenes in planning Commission meetings. There is much more planning than you might think.

The NRC Commissioners conduct a public meeting. Annette Vietti-Cook is on the left.

First some background. The “Commission,” in NRC-speak, means the presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed Commissioners acting together. At full-strength there are five Commissioners. The Commission sets policy for the NRC, develops regulations on nuclear reactor and nuclear materials safety, issues orders to licensees and adjudicates legal matters.
The federal Sunshine Act requires that any time the Commissioners meet to conduct agency business, the meeting must be public. Exceptions to this requirement are made when the Commission discusses matters such as security or confidential legal, personnel, personal or proprietary information. Our regulations lay out how we will meet the Sunshine Act requirements.
Public Commission meetings are held at NRC headquarters in the Commissioners’ Conference Room, with planning starting months in advance. This is where the staff members in the NRC’s Office of the Secretary (we call it SECY) come into play.
To prepare for the meeting, SECY works with NRC staff to plan agendas for proposed public meetings, including lists of potential internal and external contributors, which are intended to provide the Commission with a range of perspectives.
In the weeks ahead of a meeting, the NRC staff and other presenters send background materials and slides to the Commissioners. This advance information allows the Commissioners to come prepared to get their questions answered. Meanwhile about a half-dozen people in SECY are making sure of the details— arranging parking and pre-registration for external participants, getting relevant information posted on our public website, creating a seating chart for those who will brief the Commission.
As meeting day approaches, SECY ensures other logistics are in order. They make sure the room is set up properly, with name tags, microphones, and water pitchers placed on the conference table, chairs arranged, flags properly positioned. On meeting day, these preparations probably won’t be noticed by the 50-60 people who may come to the meeting and the untold number tuning into the webcast. (Incidentally, the room holds 155). The Chairman opens the meeting and turns the meeting over to the presenters. Following, the presentations, the Commissioners have an opportunity to ask questions.
Even after the meeting ends, SECY has more to do. All public Commission meetings are webcast, recorded and transcribed. The transcript must be validated and posted to the NRC website. The webcast is archived. And following most every meeting, SECY develops a memo to give the staff direction (we call this an SRM, or staff requirements memorandum), which must be approved by the Commission.
So you see, a lot of work goes into organizing the 5,000 or so Commission meetings we’ve held since the inception of the NRC almost 40 years ago – not just in my office. We hope you’ll tune in or attend a Commission meeting in the future. You can find the Commission’s meeting schedule here and a complete schedule of NRC public meetings here.