ML120540862

Response to Letter from Senator Jeanne Shaheen Vermont Yankee Annual Assessment Meeting

ML120540862
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png
Issue date:	02/23/2012
From:	Bill Dean Region 1 Administrator
To:	Shaheen J US SEN (Senate)
McNamara N
Shared Package
ML120540907	List: ML120540862
References
Download: ML120540862 (3)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION I 475 ALLENDALE ROAD KING OF PRUSSIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19406-1415 February 23, 2012 The Honorable Jeanne Shaheen United States Senate 520 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Shaheen:

Thank you for forwarding the letter you received from Mr. Howard Shaffer dated January 6, 2012, regarding the NRC Vermont Yankee Annual Assessment meeting held on June 22, 2011.

My staff has spoken and corresponded with Mr. Shaffer in the past and we are appreciative of his comments and thoughts on the conduct of our public meetings.

As you are aware, the NRC conducts many public forums including annual assessment meetings, structured to give all members of the public a chance to ask questions of the NRC as well as express their views and concerns. While the level of public interest varies widely by state and nuclear facility, many of the individuals who participate in public meetings at Vermont Yankee are very passionate and vocal, which sometimes creates challenges in effectively managing the meetings.

It is our goal to conduct these meetings in a facilitated, secure atmosphere that provides all in attendance an equal opportunity to speak. We acknowledge that our facilitators, on occasion, have needed to curtail verbal outbursts from the audience. However, we do have procedures and plans in place with local law enforcement should any audience member cross the line from passionate expression to aggressive or overly disruptive behavior. To date, I believe my staff has been successful in maintaining a civil environment for ensuring the audience is treated fairly and indiscriminately.

We regret that Mr. Shaffer was not able to speak at the last Vermont Yankee public meeting.

Although we tried our best to accommodate everyone, due to the number of people in attendance, we simply could not get to him and several others in the allotted time period. Due to the level of participation at these meetings, it can be a challenge to hold audience comments within the allotted time period. We certainly will take Mr. Shaffers feedback and examine how we might improve on that aspect of our meetings.

J. Shaheen 2 If you have additional questions in this matter, please contact Mr. Eugene Dacus in our Office of Congressional Affairs at 301-415-1697.

Sincerely,

/RA/

William M. Dean Regional Administrator

ML120540862 ADAMS Package Accession No.: ML120540907 Non-Sensitive Publicly Available SUNSI Review Sensitive Non-Publicly Available OFFICE RI/SLO RI/DRP HQ/OCA RI/RA NAME NMcNamara (NTM) RBellamy (RRB) EDacus (NTM)* WDean (WMD)

DATE 2/23/2012 2/23/2012 2/232012 2/23/2012