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August 22, 2000

The Commission has approved the staff's recommendation to revise Section D of the Policy Statement on Staff Meetings Open to the Public to state that public notice of meetings will be provided via the Internet at the NRC Web site, to publish the revised Policy Statement in its entirety, and to make other needed administrative changes, as described in SECY-00-0154. The following changes should also be made to the Federal Register notice.

Edit the last sentence of paragraph D.1 to add the phrase "via a toll-free phone number" so that it reads: "Members of the public who cannot access the NRC Web site can contact the NRC Public Document Room staff via a toll-free number for information on scheduled NRC meetings."

The staff should undertake some additional measures to be sure that this policy change is implemented fairly and efficiently, maintaining public access to NRC meeting information. The staff should consider either transferring the existing toll-free number that is used for NRC meeting announcements to the PDR, or, as stated in the Federal Register notice on the proposed policy statement revision: use that number for a recording referring callers to the PDR's phone number. Furthermore, NRC operators should be instructed to forward incoming general inquiry calls about NRC meetings to the PDR and to give the toll-free PDR phone number to the caller.

On page 1 of the FRN, in the 1^st sentence under "Additional Information" heading, delete comma after "January 25, 2000" and insert "(65 FR 3982)" after "Federal Register".

Revise the last paragraph of the draft notice to read (deletions crossed out; additions in redline):

The text of the revised Policy Statement follows in its entirety. The final Policy Statement will contain s a revised Section D, noting identifying the NRC Web site as the primary mechanism for announcing staff meetings open to the public. The electronic bulletin board and automated telephone recording will be eliminated. Members of the public who do not have access to the Internet can contact the NRC's Public Document Room staff at 800-397-4209 for information on scheduled meetings. The text of the revised Policy Statement follows this announcement. Other changes to Section D of the Policy Statement will make it consistent with current NRC staff guidance and procedures , as discussed in the proposed Policy Statement notice. These changes include: revising the statement that a meeting notice should be provided to the Meeting Announcement Coordinator at least 10 days before a meeting to state that meeting notices will be provided to the public as soon as meeting arrangements have been made, generally no fewer than 10 calendar days before the meeting; and eliminating the current 60 day limit on the announced schedule of future meetings.

The text of the Policy Statement should be included in the notice before the signature of the Secretary.