ML20197C453

Responds to Appeal of Denial of FOIA Request for Documents Re Allegations.Seven of 11 App D Items Forwarded & Available in Pdr.Portions of Items 4-7 Withheld (Ref FOIA Exemption 7)

ML20197C453
Person / Time
Site:	Vogtle
Issue date:	10/23/1986
From:	Chilk S NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
To:	Fowler L AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
Shared Package
ML20197C457	List: ML20197C453 ML20197C500 ML20197C510
References
FOIA-86-43, FOIA-86-A-140 NUDOCS 8611060176
Download: ML20197C453 (2)

Text

• [$aarg o UNITED STATES 3i /gt NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

$ W ASHINGTON, 0.C. 20555

, e gO/ ***** October 23, 1986 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Docket No. 50-424/425 Ms. Laurie Fowler ACLU Cooperating Attorney Suite 220, Grant Building 44 Broad Street, N.W. IN RESPONSE REFER Atlanta, Georgia 30303 TO 86-A-140(86-43)

Dear Ms. Fowler:

This letter responds to your July 24, 1986 appeal of the Acency's denial of certain Vogtle-related documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In response to your appeal, the Commission has reviewed the withheld material. In light of the fact that the investigations of many of the allegations have been completed, we are releasing in their entirety 7 of the 11 items listed in the Appendix D enclosed with the Agency's July 11, 1986 response to your request, and we are also releasing portions of the remaining documents (items 4 through 7) listed in Appendix D.

Portions of items 4 and 5 in Appendix D will continue to be withheld by the Agency under Exemption (7)(A) of the F0IA, 5 U.S.C. 9 552(b)(7)(A),

and under 10 C.F.R. 6 9.5(a)(7)(1) of the Commission's regulations. These items consist of NRC interviewers' memoranda on interviews with the allegers, and interviewers' handwritten notes from the same interviews.

Most of the deleted portions of the notes and memoranda concern technical issues still under consideration by the Agency's staff in Region II. As the Agency stated in its July 11, 1986 response to your request, disclosure of the deleted material could interfere with a possible enforcement action by allowing those named in the material to learn the focus, scope, and direction of the Agency's efforts, and to use that knowledge to shield actual or potential illegal action. Exemption (7)(A) applies to civil administrative enforcement proceedings under Federal statutes as well as criminal enforcement proceedings. See, e.g., Stern v.

F.B.I., 737 F.2d 84, 89 (D.C. Cir. 1984). Moreover, the Exemption is available where such proceedings are neither pending nor certain to take place, but nonetheless possible. See, e.g. , id. at 88.

Certain deletions of names and other information which would identify persons have been made in items 4 through 7 in order to protect privacy, under the authority of Exemption (7)(C) of F0IA, 5 U.S.C s 552(b)(7)(C),

and under 10 C.F.R. S 9.5(a)(7)(iii). Persons alleged in the deleted material to have acted illegally have a strong interest in not being unjustifiably linked in public to wrongdoing. See, e.g., Stern v. F.B.I.,

737 F.2d at 91-92. Moreover, even those named in the material but not '

linked to wrongdoing can suffer a stigma by mere mention of their names in j the material. See, e.g., Miller v. Bell, 661 F.2d 623, 631-32 (7th Cir. 1 1981), cert. denied sub nom. Miller v. Webster, 456 U.S. 960 (1982).

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8611060176 861023 PDR FOIA l FOWLE86-A-140 PDR 1

Ms. Laurie Fowler 2 The material being released to you is also being placed in the Commission's Public Document Room at 1717 H Street, N.W.,

Washington, DC 20555 and the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Plant Local Public Document Room at the Burke County Library, 412 4th Street, Waynesboro, GA 30830.

This letter represents final Agency action on your July 24, 1986 F0IA Appeal. Judicial review of the denial of documents is available in Federal district court in the district in which you reside or have your principal place of business, or in the District of Columbia.

Sincerel ,

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amue J. 1k VSecretary f the Commi ion

Enclosure:

Material released d

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