ML15148A339
| ML15148A339 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 05/27/2015 |
| From: | Barkley R Reactor Projects Branch 3 |
| To: | Kremer A New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance (NYAREA) |
| Barkley R | |
| References | |
| EDATS: RegionI-2015-0170, LTR-15-0242 | |
| Download: ML15148A339 (1) | |
Text
From: Barkley, Richard Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 2:14 PM To: 'kremer@area-alliance.org' Cc: 'steidler@area-alliance.org'
Subject:
Response to your April letter to the NRC regarding the Indian Point public meeting Mr. Kremer, I am responding to your April 22, 2015, letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns regarding the conduct of the Annual Assessment Meeting at Indian Point his year. In your letter, you raised concerns regarding the audience behaviors displayed at the meeting last year, as well as made a number of suggestions on how to improve the format and address audience disruptions.
In response to your letter, I outreached to your staff via phone prior to the May 20th meeting to outline what the NRC had planned to better control audience disruptions at this years meeting.
They were pleased with our plans. I did get to meet you the night of the meeting as I was assisting Brett Klukan with the meeting facilitation - We had met several times before in the 2007 - 2009 timeframe. I trust you also got to speak with Brett personally - I know he spoke with several of your staff before the meeting.
I found this years meeting was a much more civil discord, and the audience heard the range of views on Indian Point safety and continued operation. Brett did considerable outreach before the meeting to interested stakeholders and learned their concerns and interests. At the start of the meeting, he clearly laid out the ground rules for the conduct of the meeting as well as the limits of audience behavior that would be considered acceptable. Brett enforced those rules on several occasions from the podium, while I closely monitored the audience and spoke with individuals privately - I was pleased that when confronted and asked to terminate objectionable behavior, individual audience members complied without objection. Our security staff was present and also intervened on several occasions to address concerns with: 1) inappropriate behavior; 2) the use of large, potentially hazardous props; and, 3) individuals who approached the stage without warning. Brett also used a calling method for speakers along the lines which you described in your letter.
In all, I hope you found the meeting to be an informative and fair exchange of views, opinions and questions. This audience has been one of the largest and most vocal in the country for the last decade, and some of the participants at these meetings hold their views very passionately.
As New Yorkers are not shy, they push hard to let their views be known. Fortunately this year, I believe the measures implemented by the NRC to control audience outbursts, the use of internal NRC facilitators who knew the NRCs processes, and the recording of the meeting and commitment to place the information on the NRC website combined to make for a more dispassionate, civil discussion.
If you have any further questions or concerns in this matter, or suggestions on how this meeting can be better conducted in the future, please contact Brett Klukan at (610) 337-5301 or myself at (610) 608-1517. Thanks Jerry!
Rich Barkley, PE