The public, including NRC employees, can use the tool to easily share ideas and comments on how the agency can work better with others inside and outside government, improve the availability and quality of information, and be more innovative and efficient
- By Linton Levy -
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today launched an Open Government Web page to serve as the gateway for agency activities related to the White House’s Open Government initiative. The NRC is actively supporting the open government initiative and encouraging public participation through a new user-friendly citizen engagement tool accessible through this page. The Web page is at: http://www.nrc.gov/open.html.
The public, including NRC employees, can use the tool to easily share ideas and comments on how the agency can work better with others inside and outside government, improve the availability and quality of information, and be more innovative and efficient.
The tool, being piloted, is easy to use. First, an individual signs in with an email address and submits an idea to the NRC. The idea should be tagged to one of the following identified categories: transparency, participation, collaboration or innovation. Members of the public can also engage by providing comments on other proposed ideas or by voting on whether they agree or disagree with a proposed idea.
Initially, the citizen engagement tool will be active from February 6 to March 19. After this time, the agency will evaluate if they will continue to use this tool or adopt a different citizen engagement tool. Subsequently, the NRC will review the submitted ideas and determine whether they will be implemented.
Members of the public who do not wish to use this tool can instead send ideas in the following ways: mail to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Public Affairs Mail Stop O16-D3, Washington, DC 20555-0001; email to opa.resource@nrc.gov; call 1-800-368-5642 x 8200; or fax to 301-415-3716.
The NRC is developing an Open Government Plan that will describe how the agency will improve transparency and integrate public participation and collaboration into its activities. The Plan is scheduled to be published by April 7.
More information on Open Government is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/documents/open-government-directive.