ML20245K842
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l April 11,.1985 l.
l Ms. Billie Pirner Garde t
Government Accountability Project
.1901 Que Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
Dear Ms. Garde:
In your statement of April 11., 1984, on behalf of the " Citizens Clinic for Accountable Government," you made allegations of impropriety concerning inspections by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at the Waterford 3 Power Reactor Facility.
In my January 30, 1985, letter to you, I requested specific infonnation in support of the alleged improprieties.
Subsequent to my January letter, my staff informed me that neither you nor Ms. Lynne Bernabei would agree to an Office of Inspector and Auditor interview j.
concerning alleged NRC impropriety at Waterford 3.
You said the reason for your unwillingness to provide further information in support of the i
allegativ1s is the possibility such information could identify your
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confidential sources.
Unfortunately, we are unable to effectively proceed with our inquiry without your assistance.
I hope you will reconsider your position and encourage your sources to talk with our investigators.
In the meantime, we are closing our inquiry because of the lack of specific information.
If you decide at a later date to provide specific information in support of your allegations, we will be pleased to reopen our inquiry.
Sincerely, bec: Commission (5)
Sharon R. Connelly, Director Office of Inspector and Auditor Distribution:
Reading Copy sent to Paul Check 10/16/85 1
1 Ltr/ Garde / Tony
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
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- PROJECT,
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Plaintiff,
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Civil Action No. 84-2557 I
v.
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UNITED STATES NUCLEAR
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REGULATORY, COMMISSION,
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1 Defendant.
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DECLARATION OF HOLLIS BOWERS j
I, Hollis Bowers, state as follows:
1.
I am the Acting Assistant Director for Investigations, Office of Inspector and Auditor (OIA),
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
I am the i
supervisor of investigations in OIA.
OIA conducts investigations and audits of internal NRC operations.
OIA had received and is currently reviewing allegations concerning the Waterford Task Force.
The allegations will be reviewed to determine whether there has been any violation of NRC regulations or Federal statutes.
2.
The purpose of this declaration is to provide a detailed description of and the justification for the I
withholding of portions of one document identified by the Office of Huclaar Reactor Regulation (NRR).
The statements made in this declaration are based on my personal knowledge or upon informs.tior available tc me and relied on by me in a &y,gocy;g, e ** "
the. ordinary course of my duties.
The one document dealt with in this declaration is listed in the Vaughn Index, which is Attachment 1 hereto.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED 3.
Exemotion 5.
Portions of document 272 in the Vaughn.Index (Attachment 1) contain stat,mnts that are predecisional in nature and would harm OIA'.s decisionmaking process, thus these portions are exempt from release under Exemption 5.
While the Waterford Task Force was conducting an inspection of the Waterford Unit 3 allegations, an individual alleged that the Waterford Task Force did not properly conduct its inspection.
The allegations were.
forwarded to OIA for review and investigation as appropriate.
OIA is currently reviewing the handling of the Waterford Task Force inspection to ascertain whether there was any wrongdoing.
Release of the information contained in Document n
272 would reveal the focus of any investigation undertaken rtVEAL.ifnXes14setor. o;nnions-and. r+ commendations bef ore' p
Aj. jd any nal decision on pursuing an investigation has been ma d e..
The damages to the predecisional process if the information is released are twofold.
First, I believe that release cf the predecisional information wculd stifle the cpen and frank e:: change of views between OIA investigators 2
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