ML19207B889
| ML19207B889 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Black Fox |
| Issue date: | 08/31/1979 |
| From: | Wolfe S Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | Gross L UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL |
| References | |
| FOIA-79-341 NUDOCS 7909060007 | |
| Download: ML19207B889 (2) | |
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AUG 311979 Mr. Laurence H. Gross Staff Reporter United Press International 3601 North Lincoln IN RESPONSE REFER Oklahoma Ci ty, OK 73105 TO F01A-79-341
Dear Mr. Gross:
This is in response to your letter of August 16, 1979.
Your letter was received on August 21, 1979.
In your letter, you request, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act,
" specific documents discussed and entered as part of the record during licensing hearings conducted by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in February 1979 at Tulsa, Oklahoma." Your letter refers to " Abstracts from a lengthy General Electric report, entitled 'The Reed Report,'"
which were entered into the record of the Black Fox proceeding (Docket Nos. STN 50-556, STN 50-557) which was conducted in Tulsa during February 1979.
The letter also refers to the Reed Report itself.
In a telephone conversation of August 27 with John H. Frye, legal Counsel, ASLBP, you indicated that you wished to modify your request to include either the Reea Report or the abstracts taken from it, or both.
For your information, the NRC is in possession of a General Electric (GE) Nuclear Reactor Study on the subject of GE's Boiling Water Nuclear Steam Supply System which was prepared under the direction and supervision of Dr. Charles Reed in 1975 (the Reed Report) and the related Sub-Task Force Reports which serve as appendices to the Reed Report. The NRC is also in possession of abstracts taken from that report and entered into the record of the Black Fox Proceeding.
These documents came into the possession of the NRC under a Protective Order issued on January 5,1979, by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in the Black Fox proceedings.
Specifically, this Protective Order (copy attached) provides that "GE will make the Reed Report and the related Sub-Task Force Reports available to the Board in confidence." GE claims that the entire report is proprietary.
In maintaining this confidence, only the members of this Licensing Board have access to this copy of the Reed Report and the related Sub-Task Force Reports.
Under the terms of the Protective Order, the abstracts, while made available to the representatives of the parties in the Black Fox Proceedings, are also accorded confidential treatment.
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s Page 2 Three previous requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the Reed Report have been denied by the Licensing Board.
One of these was appealed.
The Licensing Board has certified to the Commission the question of whether the Reed Report should now be returned to GE (copy of the certification attached).
The matter is presently under study in the Office of the General Counsel.
Because the Reed Report has been made available to the Licensing Board in confidence and is subject to a Protective Order, and because the abstracts taken from the Reed Report are accorded confidential treatment under the terms of the same Protective Order, the requested documents are being withheld from public disclosure pursuant to exerption (4) of the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)) and 10 CFR 9.5(a)(4) of the Commission's regulations.
The person responsible for this denial is the undersigned.
This denial may be appealed to the Commission within 30 days frcm the receipt of this letter. As provided in 10 CFR 9.15, any such appeal must be in writing, addressed to the Secretary of the Commission, Washington, DC 20555, and should clearly state on the envelope and in the letter that it is an " Appeal from an Initial FOIA Decision".
Sincerely, I M [4 Sheldon J. 'hblfe, Esquire Chairman, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Attachments:
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