ML19254E352
| ML19254E352 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/05/1979 |
| From: | Hendrie J NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Price M HOUSE OF REP. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19254E351 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7910310477 | |
| Download: ML19254E352 (1) | |
Text
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-+t UNITED STATES
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j NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION t
W ASHINGTON, D.C. 20555 5
,o October 5,1979 OFFICE OF THE CHA'RMAN The Honorable Melvin Price United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congressman Price:
This responds to your July 24, 1979 letter expressing concern over the public availability of the NRC " Barrier Penetration Database," flVREG/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.
flone of the i;RC documents referenced in the Washington Post Article of July 24 are exenpt.
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 National Technical Information Service.
Tc classify inforn Ttion 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 in'ormation 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 Comission believes that no such determi-nation can be nade for the documents referenced in the article.
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 Enr. Jy Act of 1954 granting the Commission authority to withhold certain unclassifiable but sensitive information, from disclosure.
This authority was included in the flRC 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Subsequent to sequential referral of the bill to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, H.R. 2608 was superseded by H.R. 5297, which although containing partial authority for the NRC to classify sensitive information, does not provide the authority to withhold non site-specific safeguards related information such as the "Barrie.r Penetration Database."
If the authority originally contained in H.R. 2603 hac' Seen available to us at the time of publication of the database, we certainly would have withheld the sensitive parts of it from public disclosure.
f'N
\\ Sincerely,
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M hbc xJoseph !!. Hendrie
}7'4 329 Chairman 7910310 C/2