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Public Involvement in EnforcementPublic involvement and information about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's activities is a cornerstone of strong, fair regulation of the nuclear industry. The NRC recognizes the public's interest in the proper regulation of nuclear activities and provides opportunities for citizens to make their opinions known. This page describes the various ways the public may get involved in the NRC's enforcement program. On this page:
CommentsNOTE: Please be aware that any comments that you submit to the NRC will be considered a public record and entered into the agency's electronic record keeping system. Commenting on the Enforcement Policy or Program The public may always provide general comments on the enforcement program or Enforcement Policy. If you would like to send a comment, please use our online form to Contact Us About Enforcement.
Status of OE-lead Agency InitiativesResponses to Public Comments and Availability of Draft Proposed Revised Enforcement Policy On September 15, 2008, the NRC published (73 FR 53286) a notice of availability of draft and request for comments on a proposed major revision to the Enforcement Policy (Enforcement Policy or Policy). On October 16, 2008, the NRC published (73 FR 61442) a correction to the September 15th notice. The public comment period for the proposed revised Enforcement Policy ended on November 14, 2008. During the comment period the NRC staff received from external stakeholders a wide range of comments on the revised Policy. The staff subsequently spent considerable time reviewing all the comments and, as a result, incorporated numerous changes, both large and small, throughout the revised Policy (e.g. a section was added on Responsibilities, a more detailed discussion on Predecisional Enforcement Conferences was included, and the extensive discussion of the Civil Penalty Assessment Process located in the current Policy was reinserted.) Except as explained in the following paragraph, the NRC staff has completed its evaluation of those comments and is now making available to the public NRC’s responses to those comments. A summary of the comments and the NRC’s responses are available at NRC’s Electronic Reading Room or accessible via ADAMS Accession Number ML091830260. Based, in part, on feedback received from external stakeholders during the 2008 comment period, the NRC decided to continue its current and past practice of providing violation examples (supplements) only in the Enforcement Policy rather than having violation examples in both the Policy and in the NRC Enforcement Manual as was originally planned when the decision to revise the Policy was made. Because the staff, following the 2008 comment period, substantially revised and/or inserted additional examples into the supplements, the NRC concluded that an additional opportunity for public comments on the supplements was appropriate. Thus, on June 8, 2009, NRC published (74 FR 27191) a notice of availability of draft and request for comments regarding Section 6.0, Supplements-Violation Examples, of the proposed revised Policy. This notice applied only to Section 6.0 of the proposed revised Policy and not the entire previously published revised Policy. The NRC staff is currently evaluating the public comments received on the revised supplements. Upon completion of this evaluation, the NRC intends to make its responses available to the public. The draft revised Supplements-Violation Examples which were made available for public comment on June 8, 2009, can be found at NRC’s Electronic Reading Room or accessible via ADAMS Accession Number ML091520156. At this time, the NRC is also making publicly available a preliminary final draft of the proposed revised Policy. This draft reflects changes the staff made to the proposed revised Policy as a result of comments received during the 2008 public comment period. (Note: Since the staff is still evaluating comments received on the supplements during the 2009 public comment period, the supplements contained in this preliminary final draft of the proposed revised Policy remain those that were made publicly available for comment in 2008.) This draft is being made available to the public for informational purposes only (i.e., the staff is not soliciting additional comments on the revised Enforcement Policy.) The staff reiterates that this is a preliminary final draft document and, as such, anticipates that more edits will be made before a final draft of the revised Policy is provided to the Commission for approval later this year. Until such time as the Commission approves the revised Policy, the current Enforcement Policy, available at NRC’s Electronic Reading Room, remains in effect. The above mentioned draft of the revised Policy is also available at NRC’s Electronic Reading Room or is accessible via ADAMS Accession Number ML092240160. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) The enforcement Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Process pilot program concluded. The results of the pilot indicated that the use of ADR in certain kinds of enforcement cases was generally successful. Based on the results of the pilot, improvements were made to the ADR process and the agency will continue to use this process for certain kinds of enforcement cases. Enforcement Actions Involving Individuals/Discrimination Task Group (DTG)During CY 2006, no changes were made to Section VIII of the Enforcement Policy which addresses enforcement actions against individuals. The most recent revision was proposed by an internal NRC working group chaired by OE to evaluate and propose recommendations to this section of the Enforcement Policy. The proposed revision was published in the Federal Register on March 9, 2001, and sought stakeholder feedback on the proposed revision. The NRC received comments from several stakeholders including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). The staff evaluated these comments; however, since the Discrimination Task Group (DTG) was considering a related question, namely whether hearing rights should be granted to individuals who receive NOVs, revision to Section VIII was placed on hold pending issuance of the DTG Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM). Issued on March 26, 2003, the DTG SRM provided the staff with the Commission’s direction to "fully explore the policy and resource implications of providing hearing rights (either formal or informal) to individuals subject to an NOV in connection with violations of the employee protection regulations." During the ADR pilot program, the staff engaged in mediation with individuals as well as licensees. Although it was a challenge to coordinate and honor confidentiality issues, the staff, as well as some external stakeholders, believed that ADR offered an opportunity to resolve these matters in a positive manner. The ADR pilot program offered individuals creative actions meeting the agency’s interest in deterrence and compliance. In addition, the staff allowed individuals to gain their employer’s agreement to certain actions prior to finalizing a settlement agreement. Consequently, the staff concluded in SECY-06-0102, that offering ADR to individuals accused of wrongdoing provides the alternative process for individuals the Commission directed the staff to continue considering in the DTG SRM. The Enforcement Policy will be revised to incorporate the use of ADR for individuals subject to an NOV in connection with violations of the employee protection regulations. |
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