Are Libraries Making Sensitive NRC Documents Publicly Available? NBC Says Yes

-- Library Journal, 12/4/2006

In a hidden-camera investigation, NBC News found that "thousands" of sensitive documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are made available to the public in public libraries, even though many had been pulled by the NRC from its online site after the 9/11 attacks. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, called it "appalling." NBC reported that, after 9/11, the NRC did make a list of documents that should be pulled, but the agency reversed itself. (NBC did not reveal the location of the libraries or the specifics in the documents.)

The NRC responded that a "limited amount of information continues to exist in the public domain," but said "the usefulness of this information is minimal given its age and subsequent changes to and improvements in security programs and physical modifications that have been made to nuclear facilities since Sept. 11." Instead, the agency has focused "on more recent and relevant information available in public electronic systems. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, criticized the NRC in a letter. Gordon's office further criticized NRC for arguing that the responsibility for NRC public document rooms has been transferred to the Government Printing Office (GPO), which maintains a Federal Depository Library Program, and to local public libraries. He said that emails obtained by the House Science Committee show that, after 9/11, both the GPO and public libraries that maintained the NRC records sought guidance from the NRC regarding public access to sensitive documents—and that the NRC didn't provide such guidance. The NRC Inspector General is studying the agency's local public document rooms.