ML20035E024
| ML20035E024 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 03/16/1992 |
| From: | Siess C Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| To: | Ward D Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20035D940 | List: |
| References | |
| ACRS-2817A, NUDOCS 9304140191 | |
| Download: ML20035E024 (10) | |
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ps *tcvq jo, UNITED STATES j
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION w
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s ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS o,
g WASHINGTON, D. C. 20566 s.,
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March 16, 1992 MEMORANDUM FOR:
D. A. Ward, Chairman FROM:
C.
P.
Siess
SUBJECT:
PROCEDURES FOR PREPARATION OF THE ACRS SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES During the November 22-24, 1991 Ad Hoc Subcommittee meeting in Baltimore, Md., I was requested to develop procedures and guidance for use by the ACRS staff in the preparation of Subcommittee meeting minutes. Attached herewith is a set of such procedures for your consideration.
Although these procedures have been developed for preparation of the Subcommittee meeting minutes, they could also be used in the preparation of the full Committee meeting minutes, as appropriate.
The ACRS staff management should ensure proper implementation of these procedures.
Also, they could develop additional" detailed guidance and procedures, as needed, to supplement the attached procedures.
Attachment:
As stated i
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l 9304140191 930603 ATTACHMENT H PDR ACRS 2817A PDR
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PROCEDURES FOR PREPARATION OF t
THE ACRS SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES i
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PROCEDURES FOR PREY m TION OF ACRS SUBCOM ITTEE MEETING MINUTES TABLE OF CONTENTS I.
OBJECTIVES..............................................
1 II.
SCOPE / CONTENT...........................................
2 III.
GUIDANCE FOR THE STAFF ENGINEERS........................
2 IV.
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BRANCH CHIEF......................
4 V.
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN / MEMBERS.....
4 VI.
FORMAT FOR THE PREPARATION OF MINUTES...................
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e PROCEDURES FOR PREPARATION OF ACRS SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES f
I.
OBJECTIVES i
The objectives of ACRS meeting minutes are to:
Comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that
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e requires inclusion of the following in the minutes:
Time, date, and place of the meeting.
A list of attendees, including:
i Advisory Committee members and staff Agency employees and their contractors and l
consultants l
Representatives of the applicant / licensees and l
their contractors and consultants i'
Members of the public who presented oral or written statements Other members of the public.
l An accurate description of each matter discussed during l
the meeting and. the associated resolution / conclusion /
decision, if any, by the Committee.
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A list of each report or other document ' received or i
issued _ by the Committee.
.(A set of all documents i
provided to the Committee by the NRC staff, applicant, i
licensee, industry, etc., should be retained in an office i
file so that it can be reproduced and made available, as
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appropriate.)
l numble_perseas who did not attend the meeting to have a clear i
e perspeotive of the:-
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Purpose of the meeting.
1 Matters discussed'during the meeting.
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Areas of particular interest and concern to the members
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and consultants.
Conclusions, recommendations, and future plans resulting-from the. meeting.
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2 II.
SCOPE / CONTENT To achieve the above objectives, the minutes should include the following information:
e Brief summary of the material presented by the speakers, including outstanding / unresolved issues, differing technical views among the NRC staff, and between the NRC staff and the industry.
1 Important comments, concerns, suggestions, and questions by e
the members and consultants and related responses by representatives of the
- staff, the
- industry, and their consultants.
Conclusions, recommendations, and future plans of the e
Committee regarding matters discussed during the meeting.
summary, in list form, of actions, agreements, commitments, e
requests, and follow-up matters resulting from the meeting.
III. GUIDANCE FOR TEE STAFF ENGINIrus The contents of the minutes should be clear, in good, 'glish, e
technically correct, and reflect a good understanding by the engineers of the subject matter as well as the discussions j
during the meeting.
Preparing a good set of minutes requires a
reasonable e
understanding of the matters discussed during the meeting.
Technical mistakes and misinterpretation of the Committee concerns, comments, and questions frequently result from lack 1
of understanding of the subject matter by the engineers.
The engineers should read the necessary documents prior to the meeting and understand the issues scheduled for discussion.
i During the meeting, the engineers should take notes of the e
important points made by the presenters; issues, concerns, comments, and suggestions by the members and consultants; and the related responses by the presenters and/or others to be used as the primary basis for the preparation of the meeting minutes.
Information in the slides and transcripts should not be copied
" blindly" in the minutes.
Transcribers are not technical persons and they make mistakes in the transcripts.
Relying solely on the transcripts for writing the minutes will lead to inaccurate information in the minutes.
Personal notes taken during the meeting should be the primary source for writing [
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3 the minutes.
The transcripts should be used only as a back-up, as needed.
Any discrepancies and ambiguities between the personal notes and the transcript should be resolved by contacting the appropriate personnel who were involved in the discussion.
Appropriate headings and subheadings should be used to identify specific sections of the minutes.
This will facilitate easy reading of the minutes and also enable the persons to spot easily the discussion of those agenda items or matters they are interested in without reading the entire minutes.
e The names and affiliations of the presenters and others who respond to Committee questions and comments should be specified.
A " marked-up" agenda reflecting the actual time spent on the e
agenda items should be attached to the minutes.
All the attachments should be included in a single Appendix and should be paginated consecutively.
Copies of only those slides and other presentation materials referenced in the body of the minutes should be included in the Appendix.
Copies of all presentation materials provided to the Subcommittee during i
the meeting should be kept in the office file and sent to the members, if requested.
The staff engineers should refrain from asking Subcommittee e
Chairmen to review and certify Subcommittee meeting minutes when they are preoccupied with other Committee activities (e.g., participation in a full Committee meeting, chairing a Subcommittee meeting, etc.).
The engineers should understand that they have the ultimate e
responsibility to produce technically correct, complste, and quality minutes for certification by the Chairman and that chairman's certification does not relieve them of this resoonsibility.
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If a Subcommittee meeting is held during the week of the full e
3 Committee meeting and the minutes cannot be prepared prior to the full Committee meeting, the staff engineer needs to provide only a summary of highlights, decisions / commitments, 3
and futura plans for use by the Subcommittee Chairman in providing a report to the full Committee.
A detailed set of minutes should be provided later.
The length of a set of minutes is difficult to specify since e
B it depends on a number of factors (e.g.,
length of the 7 s i
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4 meeting, nature of the subject matter, nu=ber of members involved, number of questions / concerns raised, etc.).
The only requirement is that the minutes should contain sufficient information to meet the objectives specified above.
IV.
RESPONSIBIL EY OF THE BRANCE CHIEF The Branch Chief should:
Review selected draft minutes, as needed, to ensure their scope, technical accuracy, completeness, clarity, etc., and provide guidance, as needed, to the engineers prior to distribution to the members for comment.
Formulate and implement a quality assurance plan to obtain feedback from the Subcommittee Chairman and other members on the quality, correctness, and completeness of the minutes.
Provide counseling to those engineers who produce poor-quality minutes consistently in spite of the periodic guidance.
Failure by the engineers to improve and produce quality minutes will be considered as a " performance issue."
e Train the engineers as necessary to make proficient use of personal computers (word processor) to make preparation of minutes more efficient.
V.
RESPONSIBILITY OF TEE 8U3COwwITTER CEAInw1_W/ MEMBERS The cognizant Subcommittee Chairman and the members can play a major role in the process of producing high-quality minutes. Their comments, feedback, and specific instructions should contribute significantly to the production of quality products by the engineers.
Certifying poor quality minutes would mean endorsing that quality standard and may preclude the engineers from producing quality products.
Paragraph 9.3 of the ACRS Bylaws states "By certifying the minutes, the cognizant Chairman attests to the best of hJs knowledge to the completeness and technical accuracy of the minutes,"
In view of the above, the Subcommittee Chairman should:
e Review the draft minutes thoroughly for technical accuracy, completeness, etc., and provide feedback to the engineers.
Avoid rewriting incosplete or poor-quality minutes.
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Return poor-quality or incomplete minutes to the
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- engineer, preferably with specific guidance for i
rewriting.
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e Inform the Branch Chief if an engineer produces substandard minutes consistently for possible counseling j
and eventual action, as needed, for poor performance.
Members of the Subcommittee or other members who receive and use the minutes should inform the Subcommittee Chairman and/or ACRS staff management of deficiencias or inaccuracies-that they detect.
VI.
FORMAT rom TEE PREPARATION OF MINUTE 4 e
Introduction Include:
.f Name of the Subcommittee and date, location, and general I
purpose of the meeting.
Whether the meeting is fully open, fully closed, or partially closed along with the reasons for closing the meeting.
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Name of the Designated Federal Official.
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e Attendees Include:
ACRS members and consultants who attended the meeting.
Principal speakers from NRC,-industry, etc.
ODening Remarks e
Include:
Time at which the meeting was convened.
opening remarks by the Chairman including matters scheduled for discussion during the meeting, and comments by other members.
Whether written comments or requests for time.to make oral statements have been received from members of the public and, if so, their names and affiliations.
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.1 c-6 Discussion of Acenda Items e
Titles of Items - Presenters (s), Affiliation (s)
Include a brief description of the material presented under each Item followed by questions / comments by the Committee, its consultants, and responses by the presenters and/or others.
Subcommittee Action / Future Plans Specify the action taken by the Subcommittee, including its plans to refer this matter to the full Committee, or to hold additional meetings for further review.
If the Subecmmit-tee's decision is unclear or inconclusive, check with the Subcommittee Chairman regarding what should be included in this Section.
e Summary of Acreements. Assianments. Recuests. and Follow-Up Matters Include any agreements, assignments, requests, commitments, and follow-up matters resulting from the meeting.
e Adiournment Include the time at which the meeting was adjourned e
Accendix All attachments in a single Appendix paginated consecutively.
Complete list of attendees (typed).
Marked-up copy of the agenda.
List of documents provided to the Subcommittee.
copies of slides, presentation materials, memorandum, letter, etc., referenced in the body of the minutes.
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Excerpt from Attachment to Menorandum dated April 6, 1992 from R. P. Savio,
Subject:
Future ACRS Activities - 386th ACRS Meeting' 11 June 4-6, 1992 t
32.
Desian Features to Facilitate Decommissionino (Open) l' (DAW /MME) ESTIKATED TIME:
To be determined Mr. Stella has proposed that the Committee consider as a key technical issue the incorporation of design features in future plants to facilitate decommissioning.
Mr.
Stella's memorandum describing his proposal is included as Attachment D.
The Planning and Procedures Subcommittee recommends that the Committee consider Mr. Stella's proposal.
33.
Generic Issue 81 "Imoset of Locked Doors and Barriers on Plant and Personnel Safety" (Open)
(HWL/HA) ESTIMATED TIME:
To be determined w
The NRC staff has provided a reanalysis of this generic issue as recommended by the Committee in its September 11, 1990 memorandum to the EDO on the proposed prioritiz-ation of generic issues.
The Planning and Procedures Subcommittee recommends that Dr. Lewis recommend a course of action to the Committee 1
when he has completed his review of the NRC staff's work.
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ATTACHMENT I i
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