ML19254E350
| ML19254E350 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/05/1979 |
| From: | Hendrie J NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Harkin T HOUSE OF REP. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19254E351 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7910310476 | |
| Download: ML19254E350 (1) | |
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'...."l cc M-OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN The Honorable Tom Harkin United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Harkin:
This responds to your July 31 1979 letter expressing concern over the public availability of the f1RC " Barrier Penetration Database," f1VREG/CR 0181.
The Freedom of Information Act requires the Commission to make available upon request to members of the public all documents that are not exempt under the Act.
The " Barrier Penetration Database" is not exempt.
It is Commission policy to comply with the requirements of the F0IA by placing non-exempt documents in the Public Document Room and reports at the flational Technical Information Service.
To classify information under Executive Order 12065 as national security information requires a determination that the information concerns one or more of the criteria in Section 1.301 of the Order and that the unauthorized disclosure of the information could be expected to cause at least identifiable damage to the national security (defined as the national defense and foreign relations of the United States).
The Commission believes that no such determina-tion can be made for the database.
We share your concern for the protection of this type of information and believe that there should be a legal way to protect it.
Consequently, we have sought an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 granting the Commission authority to withhold certain unclassifiable but sensitive information, from disclosure.
This authority was included in the NRC authorization bill for FY '80 (H.R. 2608) as reported by the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.
Subsequent to sequential referral of the bill to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Conmerce, H.T. 2608 was superseded by H.R. 5297, which, although containing partial authority foi the i1RC to classify sensitive information, does not provide the authority to withhold non site-specific safeguards related information such as the " Barrier Penetration Database."
If the authority originally contained in H.R. 2608 had been available to us at the time of publication of the database, we certainly would have withheld the sensitive parts of it from public disclosure.
h Sincerely,
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hos~eph t-1. Hendrie Chairman
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