My conversation with Chairman Jaczko
He came prepared which was as strong signal of his interest in constructive dialog
By: Dan Yurman, Idaho Samizdat
On October 4 I had the opportunity to pitch more than 50 questions to Gregory Jaczko, the Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a fast paced online, and unscripted, 90-minute webinar .
Dan Yurman (left) talks with NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko (right) during the October 4, 2011, webinar. Photo: Clark Communications for American Nuclear Society.
The project was conceived of by Eliot Brenner, the Chief of the NRC's Public Affairs Office, and shaped into a workable event through collaboration with the American Nuclear Society. Laura Scheele, ANS Manager of Policy & Communication, set down some important ground rules for the session including the right for the moderator to ask follow-up questions.
“The ANS elected officers green-lighted the webinar as an opportunity for ANS to provide a virtual forum for ANS members and other nuclear professionals to ask NRC Chairman Jackzo about important nuclear energy issues,” said Scheele.
Webinar challenges
As the project took shape, the NRC agreed with Scheele that two separate sessions were needed, one for pro-nuclear bloggers and one for anti-nuclear organizations. (The anti-nuclear session was held Oct 6.) Scheele also insisted, and the NRC agreed, that the moderator could ask follow-up questions. About a third of the questions asked were of the follow-up type.
W
hile webinars are well-understood mechanisms in the high-tech industry, this was the NRC’s first experience with the process. The NRC chairman has been a lightning rod for controversy over his actions regarding Yucca Mountain. Some people see this event as a publicity stunt, but I disagree with that view.
As a pro-nuclear energy blogger, I've written several posts on which I've noted the political nature of some of Jaczko's actions. However, I also saw this webinar as an opportunity to re-engage with him in a civil dialog and move the discourse out of the pool of shallow cynicism that pervades conversations in Washington, DC. I was looking for a deeper level of engagement and we got it.
In the end, the print-out of questions submitted in advance was more than five pages long. Several overlapping questions were combined to make effective use of limited time.
Small audience now, but likely to grow
More than 60 people signed on to the webinar session when it started at 11 a.m. and more than 40 were still with it when the event ended 90 minutes later. According to the NRC, another 15 people listened in through a toll-free 800 telephone number.
NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko took questions during the live, unscripted session on a wide range of topics including Yucca mountain, new reactor design reviews, and the NRC’s response to the Fukushima crisis.
While many of the questions were asked, and answered, many others—some highly technical—will be answered on the NRC blog. In addition, the NRC has posted a podcast of the webinar, a video, and a complete transcript (see links below).
Jaczko was pleasant, conversational, and well prepared for the session. He invested a lot of time in the event both before it and during the a 90-minute live, unscripted session. The result “exceeded all expectations,” the NRC’s Eliot Brenner told the New York Times.
Links to NRC Video, Audio, and Transcript
Post webinar statements
The next day Jaczko participated in a panel discussion on nuclear energy industry regulation at the National Press Club. The event, hosted by the National Journal, focused on how the NRC will work in the post Fukushima era. During the session, Jaczko said that he sees strong arguments on both sides for putting a moratorium in place on licensing new reactors and re-licensing existing plants.
However, Jaczko also said all five NRC commissioners have decided that current NRC regulations provide adequate mechanisms for new safety requirements to be adopted over time.
Two key areas are new rules for dealing with total loss of power at a nuclear plant, called "station blackout," and instrumentation of spent fuel pools. The NRC feels that new rules in these areas could be applied to new reactors even after they get their license.
Seeking a more interactive venue
The way the webinar was set up is that the audience logged into a website that allowed them to listen to the session and post questions via a dialog box. In the conference room where the webinar was taking place, NRC staff projected that web page on the wall so that we could see the questions as they came in.
This is a partially interactive venue. I think there are opportunities with technology that is available today to do more. For instance, my perspective is that tablets will revolutionize the way we read though I still prefer a real book sometimes and for the same reason I like to hold a newspaper. It is a tactile experience that cannot be duplicated with electronic media. I think this is a generational view that will fade as an influence on society as the boomer generation leaves the stage.
The news Amazon Kindles and the Apple iPad are taking us to a new place in terms of how people acquire information. I think that video webinars, not just voice, which is what we did, are the next big thing. See for instance the TED Talks series are part of it, but they are just one-way, outbound.
It is the interactive nature of a webinar, in which the audience participates in shaping the conversation, that makes sense to me. In a video webinar you can have a split screen with the moderator and guest speaker on one, and an audience member coming in via Skype and a web cam on the other. I hope to get a chance to try one. If tablets have webcams, people would use them to be part of this type of event.
I'm looking forward to trying to put together an event that is more interactive and more visual. If you have suggestions about a way to do this, please post them in the comments.
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