ML20031E100
| ML20031E100 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 05/29/1980 |
| From: | Ahearne J NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20031E094 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-81-316 NUDOCS 8110150092 | |
| Download: ML20031E100 (5) | |
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I TESTIMONY OF JOHN F. AHEARNE, CHAIRMAN UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 29,1980 4
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Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you today f
in support of the proposed consolidation of NRC headquarters.
i In October 1977 Mr. Lee V. Gossick, the Executive Director for Operations, presented to you on behalf of the Commission details of the estimated direct annual cost to the taxpayers of the dispersal of NRC functions and personnel. But the true penalty cannot be measured in dollar-and-cent terms. That penalty, as Chai.rman Hendrie pointed out several years ago, "has to do with the inefficiencies of having substantial numbers of our staff in transit between locations all the time, with the difficulties of convening the many interoffice meetings we have to have, with having,
staff managers at all levels spending their time and energy getting.
downtown to Commission meetings and at other locations -for other N
f""1 business instead of being able to concentrate on effective management, and finally, with the devastating effect on the morale and working efficiency of the staff generated from being located in all these outlying locations, separated from the Commission and the rest of the staff.
It gene rates a "we-thr;- sort of feeling, and an antagonism that is particularly noticeable between the Commission and its offices downtown and the rest of the staff up north in Maryland."
The accident at Three Mile Island, a year ago, didn't change the basic facts presented by Mr. Gossick and Chairman Hendrie. The accident did, however, illustrate as no words could have that the need for early O
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consolidation is real and that the difficuities h
beyond. mere inconvenience to Commissioners of further delay go,
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and staff and added costs to the taxpaycrs.
Dispersion has had and will continue to h negative impact on the Commission's ability tave a direct, I
crisis situation and to function normally in sucho respond assure the public health and safety.
a way as to best This is a point that has been emphasized b y several independent evaluators of the Commission's response to th e Three Mile Island accident.
The President's Commission <
Island found significant management pro ie'he Accident at spread, which places top management in Washingtms v
in Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland" on and most of the staff and recommended that a reorganized agency "be located in the same buildi ng or group of bui' sings".
The same recommendation was made by the NRC Group headed by Washington attorney Mitchell Rappointed S ogovin.
Its report stated that " physical separation of the Commi and of staff offices and branches from onc nothssion 'from the staff, time-wasting but also encourages a poorer, is not only fragmentation of the staff".
working relationship and All of this is nothing new to the Commission the position we have long taken before yo and simply reinforces of the Congress.
u and other Committees of N
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I am pleased to report to the Committee that some progress toward consolidation is underway.
By letter dated April 22, 1980 Director McIntyre of the Office of Management and Budget instructed the General '
Services Administration to provide for interim consolidation of NRC activities into two principal locations, one in the Bethesda Triangle in suburban Maryland where a number of our activities are presently located and the other in the Matomic Building at 1717 H _ Street in northwest Washington, which the Commission now partially occupies.
This partial, interim consolidation will enable the Commission and its principal staff to interact more e ffectively and thus will mitigate many of the managerial problems caused by our current housing configuration.
We fully support t' hese interim measures directed by OMB m
f'"3 and will work with the GSA and the other agencies affected to assure as smooth a move as possible at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayers.
However, I should reemphasize that n, nile the measures initiated by OMB will improve the current situation, the Commission continues to believe that only consolidation at a single location will fully resolve the problems previously identified.
Congressional action on a new building for NRC was well underway when the moratorium was imposed over a year ago.
There is general agreement on the need for consolidation.
The basic framework in terms e
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On behalf of my fellow Commissioners, the NRC staff and ~most o all, the public which relies on us to assure the safety of nuclear power, I ask the Committee to act promptly on our longstanding request.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared remacks. I would be ased to answer any questions you may have regarding cur request.
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