NRC wants more private meetings for commissioners

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it wants to allow certain meetings of three or more commissioners to be held in private to improve "efficiency and collegiality."

Current regulations prohibit more than two of the agency's five commissioners from meeting to discuss business unless the session is open to the public.

The NRC said in a statement that it planned to propose a change in the regulations that would allow technical or informational briefings and "generalized 'big picture' discussions" to be held privately by several or all of the commissioners.

Any private meetings would not decide any public policy issues, the NRC said.

In 1985, the NRC proposed a similar change but dropped it after some members of Congress expressed concern.

To allay any concerns this time, the NRC said it would be willing to keep records for the first six months documenting the date, subject and participants in any private meetings of three or more commissioners. "After six months, the commission will consider whether the record-keeping practice might usefully continue," the NRC said.

Ahh yes, what's a few secrets between friends !!

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), March 01, 1999

Answers

Efficiency and collegiality? along with duplicity, deceit, surreptitiousness, public ignorance, collusion, favoritism, indecision, inactivity, lack of accountability, free reign, apathy . . . Hey! I know. Let's give NRC members life tenure and let's make International Olympic Committee Members ex officio member of the NRC. Let's make it legal for them to receive gifts. Let's let them write their own paychecks. Let's let them hire their own children. Let's require them to hire executive assistants of the opposite sex and let's mandate that they share hotels rooms with such assistants. Let's grant them immunity from all sex harrassment laws and all other laws. Let's buy them bugout shelters in the Yukon and let them handle all crisis communication from such shelters. Let's do all this and more. We need more collegiality amongst the NRC members.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 01, 1999.