NRC Employees Win Hammer Awards from Vice President Gore

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
	Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
	Washington, DC 20555-001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

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No. 99-65
April 2, 1999

NRC EMPLOYEES WIN HAMMER AWARDS FROM VICE PRESIDENT GORE

Five Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees were part of a multi-agency team that received Hammer awards from Vice President Al Gore in recognition of significant contributions in support of "reinventing government" principles.

This is the third Hammer award that NRC employee teams have received in the last two months. As previously announced, two earlier awards went to teams from the NRC Office of Administration, Division of Contracts and Property Management, for their procurement reform initiatives.

The latest award-winning team included three employees of the NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research and two employees of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. Other members of this multi-agency team came from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

This team was honored for developing the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual. This manual is a users' guide for planning, conducting, evaluating and documenting measurements used to demonstrate that a site that was radioactively contaminated has been adequately decontaminated.

In the past, each agency issued different guidance for the cleanup process. Team members expect that the new manual, which is available via the Internet, will result in significant savings for its users because far fewer samples or measurements will be required. In addition, the manual will avoid having contradictory requirements from federal agencies with overlapping jurisdictions.

The Hammer Award consists of a six-dollar hammer, a ribbon and a note from Vice President Gore, all housed in an aluminum frame.