NRC public disclosure policy change

You may recall our previous discussions here and here about a potentially serious safety incident at Nuclear Fuel Services in Erwin Tennessee that was not disclosed to the public or even local emergency and public health officials because of a secrecy policy that was itself kept secret that withheld the information for "national security" reasons.

Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Andrew Eder has been following this from the beginning, and reports this week that the problem is more widespread than previously known and that the NRC has decided to change the policy:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is changing a policy that has kept thousands of documents on an East Tennessee nuclear fuel producer from the public.

The NRC also revealed Tuesday that the policy, enacted in 2004 because of security concerns, was used to withhold documents from more facilities than previously disclosed.

According to the article, more than 12,000 documents have been withheld from the public. The report says that the NRC will now review and release redacted reports including "licensing actions and orders, inspection reports, event reports, performance reviews and enforcement actions."

Federal law provides that the public may request a hearing on incidents at nuclear facilities, but because these incidents were not publicly disclosed no hearings ever took place. That's about to change. As Eder reported recently in the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Meanwhile, the NRC has received six letters requesting a hearing on Nuclear Fuel Services, an action allowed by federal law for people "adversely affected" by the NRC's order, which, though issued in February, was not made public until July.

McIntyre said a panel of three judges has been established to determine the petitioners' standing to request a hearing and the validity of their concerns, though there is not yet a timetable for the hearings.

The letters came from the environmental group Sierra Club, an assistant professor of environmental health at East Tennessee State University, and four concerned citizens in Erwin and Jonesborough.

In addition, the NRC has scheduled a performance review of Nuclear Fuel Services. Problems at the facility were publicly disclosed only after the NRC reported them in a required annual report to Congress. Further inquiry resulted in Congress ordering a review of the NRC secrecy policy.