Nuclear Information and Resource Service

1424 16^th Street NW, #404, Washington, DC 20036

I am writing to express our deep concern with the NRC’s licensee information blackout. The NRC’s October 11, 2001 closure of the agency website to expunge publicly available nuclear industry records is an alarming event.

We at NIRS, like many other citizens, are alarmed over the vulnerability and potential danger to occupational and public health and safety that terrorist attacks on nuclear power stations pose. But w are also alarmed that the NRC-initiated withdrawal of public information threatens due process, our right-to-know and to participate in our government’s decision-making processes, and other fundamental tenets of a democratic society.

The NRC requirements for protection of safeguard information describes the "specific types of information, documents, and reports that shall be protected" against unauthorized disclosure. 10 CFR 73.21(b). NIRS does not object to this non-disclosure policy. However, we strenuously object to shutting down public access to other NRC documents and the screening of information access by way of an undisclosed internal NRC criteria outside the authority established in the agency’s codified rules and regulations.

We find no justification under the current NRC regulations nor other federal law to justify the NRC’s decision to engage in blanket withholding of basic plant information, current operating conditions, notification of NRC meetings open to the public, licensee compliance and emerging safety issues that are normally available on the NRC website. We also take issue with the filtering of public information requests to the agency’s Public Document Room through an undisclosed set of criteria.

We assume that, despite the current website blackout and screening of document requests at the Public Document Room, the NRC continues to conduct business-as-usual with its licensees. However, we believe that the public also continues to have a right-to-know in such matters regarded as non-safeguard-related, including licensing proceedings, meetings with licensees and unresolved safety issues.

We would first like to know when the NRC intends to again conduct business-as-usual, particularly in a case such as this where the NRC has engaged in a wholesale black-out of public access to information. We believe that federal law and the United States Constitution require that the NRC conduct its business in the public arena. The NRC, like most other agencies of the federal government, is still subject to a variety of federal laws, including, but not limited to, the Sunshine Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, which require that the NRC’s documents and decision-making processes be open to the public and public participation. One of the major prongs of current NRC policy is "building public confidence" in the agency’s regulatory process through such means as open meetings and ready access to information.

We therefore request that NRC issue an order identifying all documents or document types the NRC intends to withhold from public access in light of the current suspension and/or subsequent to resumption of the web site and the lifting of restrictions on the Public Document Room. We request that NRC plainly state the legal basis upon which the agency justifies further denying public access to agency and industry documents currently outside the scope of 10 CFR 73.21.

We further request that the NRC honor its stated commitment to building public confidence. In light of the current lack of public access to basic licensing proceeding information, this can only be accomplished by the NRC issuing an order temporarily suspending all licensing proceedings and meetings with the industry, and extending all public comment deadlines until such time as public access to all non-safeguards related documents has been restored.

I look forward to your reply at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

cc: Hon. Edward Markey

Diane Curran, Esq.

Tony Roisman, Esq.

Jonathan Block, Esq.

James Riccio, Esq.

Bob Backus, Esq.

Ellyn Weiss, UCS

Public Citizen Litigation Group

David Lochbaum, UCS

Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, RWMA