ML20138K887

Forwards NRC Annual Rept of Administration of Govt in Sunshine Act for CY96

ML20138K887
Person / Time
Issue date:	02/11/1997
From:	Shirley Ann Jackson, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
To:	Gingrich N, Gore A HOUSE OF REP., SENATE
References
NUDOCS 9702190191
Download: ML20138K887 (7)

Text

_ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ . _ _ ._ . _ . _ . . . _ _ . . . _ _ . . _

. h y

[ *

• g UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION pcy ' (), ; /. ,

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20655-0001 1  ; ;j#, ; ,

a

$ ,/ February 11, 1997 3,.....

CHAIRMAN

, The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr.

I President of the United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Mr. President:

In accordance with Public Laws94-409 and 104-66 (5 U.S.C. 552b (j ) ) , I am enclosing the Nuclear Regulatory

< Commission's Annual Report of the Administration of the Government in the Sunshine Act for Calendar Year 1996.

Sincerely, b d-Shirley Ann Jackson

Enclosure:

As stated

,jo v

1

! l

- 190010 t 970219019i 970211 PDR COMMS NRCC CORRESPONDENCE PDR U'

L f *% UNITED STATES l 3 4 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

' = o WASHINGTON D.C. 2056tKm1 g e a

k f February 11, 1997 g ..... o CHAIRMAN The Honorable Newt Gingrich Speaker of the United States l House of Representatives

[ Washington, D.C. 20515 l

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Public Laws94-409 and 104-66 l- (5 U.S.C. 552b (j ) ) , I am enclosing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Annual Report of the Administration of the Government in the Sunshine Act for Oalendar Year 1996.

Sincerely, l

1 b# [~ M~

Shirley Ann Jackson

Enclosure:

As stated  !

)

i

_. . - .__ - _ . - . _ . _ _._._.-. _ .__ _ _ . _ _ _ m. _ . -_ . . _ _ . _ . _ _ _ - . _ .

ANNUAL REPORT GOVERNMENT IN THE SUNSHINE ACT

1. AGENCY NAME: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

2. CALENDAR YEAR: 1996

3. The NRC made no changes in its policies and procedures related to the Government in the Sunshine Act during 1996.

4'. MEETINGS: (See definitions in Appendix A)

(February 15, 1996 through December 31, 1996)

A. Total Number of Open .......... ............... 59 (84%)

B. Total Number of Closed ........................ 11 (16%)

C. Total Number of Partially Open/ Closed ......... 0 (0%)

Total Number of Meetings .................. '0 2 7

The above meetings are counted by the numLer of separate agenda topics discussed as described in Appendix A. The same

- number of topics counted by the method used by Common cause results in the following number of meetings (see definitions in the Appendix):

D. Total ~ Sessions Open ........................... 49 (81%) ,

l l E. Total Sessions Closed ......................... 7 (12%)

l F. Total Sessions Partially Open/ Closed .......... 4 (7%)

Total Number of Sessions .................. 60  ;

l Apperdix B contains a tabulation of open and closed meetings L per month by CY 1996, using both the Nuclear Regulatory i Commission (NRC) and the Common Cause (CC) methods of l counting. Throughout this report, meeting numbers quoted are

l. counts of individual items.

! i l

'Ine NRC requires a quorum of three members to conduct '

meetings under the Government in the Sunshine Act. On July 1, l

1995, membership on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dropped to i two and remained there until February 15, 1996 when Greta Joy i Dicus was sworn in as a third Commissioner. Accordingly all

public discussions and briefings of the two Commissioners between

, January 1, 1996 and February 14, 1996 have not been counted as Commission. meetings. During this period the Commission held 5 public sessions that were announced to the public in the same

- manner in which they would have been announced had there been a quorum.

I m- , --_w .--#- . - . - - .-m.-- ,s.~ . . - , - , - , - . . - , - . - -

w - - , - . . . --

l i .

l i

l 5. EXEMPTIONS USED FOR CLOSING OR PARTIALLY CLOSING MEETINGS:

! (Number of Times Used)

A. Exeniption 1 ....................................... 6 Exemptions 2 & 6 ................................... 1 Exemption 2 ...... ................................ 3 Exemption 9 ....................................... 1 Total ......................................... 11

6. DESCRIPTION OF LITIGATION AND FORMAL COMPLAINTS:

There were no Government in the Sunshine Act cases involving )

NRC filed or otherwise in litigation during 1996.. There were '

l no formal complaints filed in 1996 related to closed Commission meetings and no requests to open a closed Commission meeting were received.

7. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

This report was prepared in the Office of the Secretary, U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Comments or inquiries on this report or related matters should be addressed to:

Office of the Secretary U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555 Telephone inquiries can be made to the Office of the ,

Secretary by dialing (301) 415-1968.  ;

l APPENDICES:

A. Definition of Meetings j B. Tabulation of Open and Closed Meetings by Month C. Tabulation of Meetings by Days' Notice l

i

APPENDIX A Definition of Meeting NRC's Statutorv Meetina Recuirement The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a five-member independent regulatory commission established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (P.L.93-408). It is responsible for ensuring the l protection of the public health and safety through the licensing

! and regulation of the uses of nuclear materials. Section 201 (a) (1) of the Energy Reorganization Act, 42 U.S.C. 5841 (a) (1) , provides that " action of the Commission shall be

! determined by a majority vote of the members present." In order to conduct meetings under the Government in the Sunshine Act, a l quorum of three members must be present.

1 Meetinas Defined by Sunshine Act Under NRC regulations, revised in 1985, a " meeting" is defined as "the deliberations of at least a quorum of Commissioners where l such deliberations determine or result in the joint conduct or disposition of official Commission business, that is, where discussions are sufficiently focused on discrete proposals or issues as to cause or to be likely to cause the individual participating members to form reasonably firm positions regarding matters pending or likely to arise before the agency.

Deliberations required or permitted by Secs. 9.105, 9.106, or i 9.108 (c) do not constitute ' meetings' within this definition."

(10 CFR Section 9.101(c) of NRC's Sunshine Regulations) Although this definition would allow some deliberations to be held in a non-public setting, the Commission has chosen to treat all discussions of agency business by a quorum of Commissioners as

" meetings" for Sunshine Act purposes.

For the purpose of tabulating meetings in this report, NRC follows the practice of the Commission for scheduling topics for Commission discussions. Generally one agenda item is scheduled for each discussion or briefing session. Accordingly, each j session is counted as a separate meeting under the NRC method of )

tabulating meetings in this report even if several discussions or i briefings occur on the same day.

f Appendix B includes counts of meeting statistics reported using

! the above definition and methods, and also using the " Common l Cause" method. The latter method counts all meetings held during i j the morning or afternoon on the same day as a single meeting, l

whether that meeting lasts one hour or half a day and i irrespective of the number of agenda items considered. Both j methods are reported here to allow comparisons of statistics by

those who use the Common Cause method.

• - 1 e

_ , . _ _ _ _ - - i

_._ _ ._. .....m.. __.._ _._. . _ ..___ . _ . _ . . . . . . ~ . _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ . _ _ _ _ . _ _ . . .,_ _

i 1

i APPENDIX B 1

TABULATION OF OPEN AND CLOSED 2 MEETINGS EY NONTH l CY 1996 Open Closed Ooen/ Closed Total i Jan (NRC) 0* 0 0 0 l (CC) 0 0 0- 0 l Feb (NRC) 8 0 0 8 l (CC) 7 0 0 7 l

l Mar (NRC) 5 0 0 5 (CC) 4 0 0- 4 l

i l Apr (NRC) 3 0 0 3 (CC) 3 0 0 3 l

l May (NRC) 8 1. 0 9 (CC) 8 1 0 9 l

I l- Jun (NRC) 6 1 0 7 (CC) 5 1 0 6 Jul (NRC) 6 0 0 6 (CC) 6 0 0 6 Aug (NRC) 5 1 0 6 (CC) 5 1 0 6 Sep (NRC) 1 2 0 3 (CC) 1 2 0 3 Oct (NRC) 9 3 0 12 (CC) 6 1 2 9 Nov (NRC) 5 3 0 8 (CC) 2 1 2 5 Dec (NRC) 3 0 0 3 (CC) 2 0 0 2 Year to Date 3 (NRC) 59 11 0 70 i (CC) 49 7 4 60 i

. . . . . . - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______ __________ _ j i

l *During the January 1 - February 14, 1996 period a quorum of j

! Commissioners did not exist. During this period 5 public j briefings of the Commission were held, i l

"CC" - Common Cause method of counting. l r n- -- -m- . -, --,e -

, . - - - w ,, -

t l  :

APPENDIX C ,

! TABULATION OF MEETINGS BY DAYS' NOTICE February 15, 1996 - December 31, 1996 DAYS' NOTICE OPEN CLOSED OPEN/ CLOSED TOTAL 12 or more 43 6 0 49 11 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 '

I 9 3 0 0 3 8 2 1 0 3 7 1 1 2 A Subtotal 51 8 0 59 6 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0

! 3 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 Less than 1 1 1 2 2 l

Subtotal 8 3 0 11 GRAND TOTAL 52 11 2 22 l l

i I