ML24178A355
| ML24178A355 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07109225 |
| Issue date: | 06/19/2024 |
| From: | Carver G NAC International |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| Shared Package | |
| ML24178A354 | List: |
| References | |
| EPID L-2023-LLA-0124 | |
| Download: ML24178A355 (1) | |
Text
NAC INTERNATIONAL AFFIDAVIT PURSUANT TO 10 CFR 2.390
George Carver (Affiant), Vice President, Engineering and Support Services, hereinafter referred to as NAC, at 2 Sun Court, Suite 220, Peachtree Corners, Georgia 30092, being duly sworn, deposes and says that:
- 1. Affiant has reviewed the information described in Item 2 and is personally familiar with the trade secrets and privileged information contained herein and is authorized to request its withholding.
- 2. The information to be withheld includes the follo wing NAC Proprietary Information that is being provided in support of the NAC-LWT LANL MOX Public meeting.
Proprietary Slides for the Public Meeting rega rding the Revised Design for LANL MOX Fuel Rods to be transported in the NAC-LWT.
NAC is the owner of this information that is considered to be NAC Proprietary Information.
- 3. NAC makes this application for withholding of proprietary information based upon the exemption from disclosure set forth in: the Freedom of Inform ation Act (FOIA); 5 USC Sec. 552(b)(4) and the Trade Secrets Act; 18 USC Sec. 1905; and NRC Regula tions 10 CFR Part 9.17(a)(4), 2.390(a)(4), and 2.390(b)(1) for trade secrets and commercial financial information obtained from a person, and privileged or confidential (Exemption 4). The in formation for which exemption from disclosure is herein sought is all confidential commercial inform ation, and some portions may also qualify under the narrower definition of trade secret, within the meanings assigned to those terms for purposes of FOIA Exemption 4.
- 4. Examples of categories of information that fit into the definition of proprietary information are:
- a. Information that discloses a process, method, or apparatus, including supporting data and analyses, where prevention of its use by competitors of NAC, without license from NAC, constitutes a competitive economic advantage over other companies.
- b. Information that, if used by a competitor, would reduce their expenditure of resources or improve their competitive position in the design, manufacture, shipment, installation, assurance of quality or licensing of a similar product.
- c. Information that reveals cost or price information, production capacities, budget levels or commercial strategies of NAC, its customers, or its suppliers.
- d. Information that reveals aspects of past, present or future NAC customer-funded development plans and programs of potential commercial value to NAC.
- e. Information that discloses patentable subject matter for which it may be desirable to obtain patent protection.
The information that is sought to be withheld is c onsidered to be proprietary for the reasons set forth in Items 4.a, 4.b, and 4.d.
ED20240088 Page 1 of 3 NAC INTERNATIONAL AFFIDAVIT PURSUANT TO 10 CFR 2.390 (continued)
- 5. The information to be withheld is bei ng transmitted to the NRC in confidence.
- 6. The information sought to be withheld, including that compiled from many sources, is of a sort customarily held in confidence by NAC, and is, in fact, so held. This information has, to the best of my knowledge and belief, consistently been held in confidence by NAC. No public disclosure has been made, and it is not available in public sour ces. All disclosures to third parties, including any required transmittals to the NRC, have been made, or must be made, pursuant to regulatory provisions or proprietary agreements, which provide for maintena nce of the information in confidence. Its initial designation as proprietary information and the subsequent steps taken to prevent its unauthorized disclosure are as set forth in Items 7 and 8 following.
- 7. Initial approval of proprietary treatment of a document/information is made by the Vice President, Engineering, the Project Manager, the Licensing Specialist, or the Director, Licensing - the persons most likely to know the value and sensitivity of the information in relation to industry knowledge.
Access to proprietary documents within NAC is limited via controlled distribution to individuals on a need to know basis. The procedure for external release of NAC proprietary documents typically requires the approval of the Project Manager based on a review of the documents for technical content, competitive effect and accuracy of the proprietary designation. Disclosures of proprietary documents outside of NAC are limited to regulator y agencies, customers and potential customers and their agents, suppliers, licensees and contractors with a legitimate need for the information, and then only in accordance with appropriate regulator y provisions or proprietary agreements.
- 8. NAC has invested a significant amount of time and money in the research, development, engineering and analytical costs to develop the information that is sought to be withheld as proprietary. This information is considered to be proprietary because it contains detailed descriptions of analytical approaches, methodologies, technical data and/or evaluation results not available elsewhere. The precise value of the expertise required to develop th e proprietary information is difficult to quantify, but it is clearly substantial.
Public disclosure of the information to be withheld is likely to cause substantial harm to the competitive position of NAC, as the owner of the inform ation, and reduce or eliminate the availability of profit-making opportunities. The proprietary in formation is part of NACs comprehensive spent fuel storage and transport technology base, and its commercial value extends beyond the original development cost to include the development of th e expertise to determine and apply the appropriate evaluation process. The value of this proprietary information and the competitive advantage that it provides to NAC would be lost if the information were disclosed to the public. Making such information available to other parties, including competitors, without their having to make similar investments of time, labor and money would provide competitors with an unfair advantage and deprive NAC of the opportunity to seek an adequate return on its large investment.
ED20240088 Page 2 of 3