NRC to restore docs following security review

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced last week it will restore more than 70,000 documents to its online library for public view in a continuing effort to scrub its site of sensitive documents.

About 5,000 documents per day will be restored to the site to limit the impact on the NRC’s electronic records system, which is expected to be completed by June 20.

Restored documents to the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) include administrative, contractual, research and others, which are unrelated to any specific licensee, that were determined to be non-sensitive following the commission’s security review.

The NRC has slowly been restoring documents to ADAMS library and some parts of its Web site after it shut down public access Oct. 25, 2004, when the agency learned that potentially sensitive documents containing floor plans and locations of nuclear materials were available online. The agency’s policy is to remove any documents that could possibly be used by terrorists.

The agency started to restore documents about a week after public access was shut off, but it did not restore Web-based access to ADAMS until February, the agency said. However, users who installed Citrix software could access the library during that time.

Over the last seven and a half months, the agency has restored access to about 163,000 non-sensitive documents in several categories, including those pertaining to reactors, Yucca Mountain and selected hearings, according to an agency press release. “Most documents dealing with nuclear materials (i.e., non-reactor) licensee documents have not been restored, and the commission continues to evaluate them,” a press release stated.

Time-sensitive documents that have not been restored, such as those related to opportunities for hearings or for public reviews and comments on regulatory matters, may be available by contacting the NRC Public Document Room at 800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or pdr@nrc.gov.