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Annual Freedom of Information Act Report Fiscal Year 2007

  1. Basic Information Regarding Report

    Russell A. Nichols
    Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer
    Mail Stop T-5 F11
    United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission
    Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
    Telephone: 301-415-7169 Fax: 301-415-5130

    http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/annual-reports/

    Contact the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Public Document Room (PDR) located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, MD 20852-2738, by telephone at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209, PDR.Resource@nrc.gov or fax at 301-415-3548. The mailing address is Public Document Room, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555 0001.

    1. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted with questions about the report.

    2. Electronic address for the report on the World Wide Web

    3. How to obtain a copy of the report in paper form.

  1. How to Make a FOIA Request

    Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer
    Mail Stop T-5 F11
    U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
    Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
    Telephone: 301-415-7169
    Fax: 301-415-5130
    E mail: FOIA.Resource@nrc.gov
    Electronic submittal: FOIA Request Submittal Form

    44% within 4 weeks
    68% within 6 weeks
    79% within 8 weeks

    To protect privacy (36%)

    To prevent compromise of a pending investigation or proceeding (6%)

    To protect the attorney-client privilege, attorney work products, or the agency�s predecisional deliberative process (22%)

    To protect proprietary information (14%)

    1. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency components and offices that receive FOIA requests.

    2. Brief description of agency's response-time ranges.

    3. Brief description of why some requests are not granted.

  1. Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act (FOIA/PA) request. A FOIA request is a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning oneself; NRC also treats such requests as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)

  2. Initial request. A request to a Federal agency for access to records under the FOIA Act.

  3. Appeal. A request to a Federal agency asking that it review at a higher administrative level a full denial or partial denial of access to records under the FOIA, or any other FOIA determination such as a matter pertaining to fees.

  4. Processed request or appeal. A request or appeal for which an agency has taken a final action on the request or the appeal in all respects.

  5. Multi-track processing. A system in which simple requests requiring relatively minimal review are placed in one processing track and more voluminous and complex requests are placed in one or more other tracks. Requests in each track are processed on a first-in/first-out basis. A requester who has an urgent need for records may request expedited processing (see below).

  6. Expedited processing. An agency will process a FOIA request on an expedited basis when a requester shows an exceptional need or urgency for the records warranting the agency to prioritize his or her request over other earlier requests.

  7. Simple request. A FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in its fastest (non-expedited) track based on the volume and/or simplicity of records requested.

  8. Complex request.  A FOIA request that an agency using multi-track processing places in a slower track based on the volume and/or complexity of records requested.

  9. Grant.  An agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request.

  10. Partial grant.  An agency decision to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request, deleting information determined to be exempt under one or more FOIA's exemptions; or an agency decision to disclose some records in their entirety, but to withhold others in whole or in part.

  11. Denial.  An agency decision not to release any part of a record or records in response to a FOIA request (a) because all the information in the requested records is determined by the agency to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions, or (b) because of a procedural reason (such as no record is located in response to a FOIA request).

  12. Time Limits.  The time period allocated in the FOIA for an agency to respond to a FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working days from proper receipt of a "perfected" FOIA request).

  13. Perfected request.  A FOIA request for records that adequately describes the records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office of the agency or agency component in possession of the records, and for which there is no remaining question about the payment of applicable fees.

  14. Exemption 3 statute.  A separate Federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under Subsection (b)(3) of the FOIA.

  15. Median number.  The middle, not average, number.  For example, for the set of 3, 7, and 14, the median number is 7.

  16. Average number.  The number obtained by dividing the sum of a set of numbers by the quantity of numbers.  For example, for 3, 7, and 14, the average number is 8 (the sum is 24, which is then divided by 3).

  1. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report

    1. Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.

      NRC-defined acronyms are available on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr0544/

    2. Basic terms, expressed in common terminology.

  1. Exemption 3 Statutes

    1.  
    2. List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year.
      41 U.S.C. 253b(m)(1), Contractor Proposals
      42 U.S.C. 2167, Unclassified Safeguards Information
      42 U.S.C. 2161-2165, Restricted or Formerly Restricted Data
      41 U.S.C.253b(m)(1), Hornbostel v. U.S. Department of Interior, 305 F. Supp. 2d 21 (D.D.C. 2003)
      42 U.S.C. 2167, Va. Sunshine Alliance v. NRC, 509 F. Supp. 863 (D.D.C. 1981), aff'd, 669 F.2d 788 (D.C. Cir. 1981)
      42 U.S.C. 2161-2165, Meeropol v. Smith, No. 75-1121 (D.D.C., February 29, 1984)
      1. Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute.
      2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If so, then cite example.
V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests
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  A. Numbers of initial requests
    1. Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year (09/30/2006)     36  
    2. Number of requests received during current fiscal year     349  
    3. Number of requests processed during current fiscal year     351  
    4. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year (09/30/2007)     34  
 
  B. Disposition of initial requests.        
    1. Number of total grants   147    
    2. Number of partial grants   98    
    3. Number of denials   8    
      a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used (total counting each exemption
        once per request)   188    
        (1) Exemption 1     0  
        (2) Exemption 2     30  
        (3) Exemption 3     3  
        (4) Exemption 4     27  
        (5) Exemption 5     42  
        (6) Exemption 6     33  
        (7) Exemption 7(A)     12  
        (8) Exemption 7(B)     0  
        (9) Exemption 7(C)     35  
        (10) Exemption 7(D)     1  
        (11) Exemption 7(E)     5  
        (12) Exemption 7(F)     0  
        (13) Exemption 8     0  
        (14) Exemption 9     0  
 
    4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 98      
      a. no records     37  
      b. referrals     2  
      c. requests withdrawn     19  
      d. fee-related reason     12  
      e. records not reasonably described     6  
      f. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason     3  
      g. not an agency record     2  
      h. duplicate request     1  
      i.

other (no response to identity verification (7), lack of response (3); neither confirm nor deny (1); no response to fee estimate (5))

     16  
 
VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests  
 
  A. Numbers of appeals.  
    1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year   6  
    2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year   7  
 
  B. Disposition of appeals.  
    1. Number completely upheld   1    
    2. Number partially reversed   3    
    3. Number completely reversed   1    
      a. Number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption once per appeal)  
        (1) Exemption 1   0    
        (2) Exemption 2   1    
        (3) Exemption 3   0    
        (4) Exemption 4   1    
        (5) Exemption 5   0    
        (6) Exemption 6   1    
        (7) Exemption 7(A)   2    
        (8) Exemption 7(B)   0    
        (9) Exemption 7(C)   1    
        (10) Exemption 7(D)   0    
        (11) Exemption 7(E)   0    
        (12) Exemption 7(F)   0    
        (13) Exemption 8   0    
        (14) Exemption 9   0    
 
    4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total)   2    
      a. no records     0  
      b. referrals     0  
      c. requests withdrawn     0  
      d. fee-related reason     0  
      e. records not reasonably described     0  
       f. not a proper FOIA request for some other reason     2  
      g. not an agency record     0  
      h. duplicate request     0  
      i. other (fee waiver denial)     0  
 
VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests
  FY 2007 median day calculations are based on working days.
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  A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year.
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  1. Simple requests (Track A)
   
  1. number of requests processed
  2. median number of days to process
   327
11		  
  2. Complex requests (Tracks B & C)
   
  1. number of requests processed
  2. median number of days to process
   24
40		  
  3. Requests accorded expedited processing
   
  1. number of requests processed
  2. median number of days to process
   0
0		  
  B. Status of pending requests.
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    1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 34
  Track A
Track B		 33
 1		  
    2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date:
  Track A
Track B		 13
31		  
 
VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year(s)
  Calculations are based on working days.
  FY 06 FY 07 % Change
FY 06 to FY 07
  A. Number of requests received 320 349
9%
  B. Number of requests processed 364 351
-4%
  C. Median number of days requests were pending as of end of fiscal year    
 
15 14
-7%
  D. Other statistics significant to agency:    
 
    Expedited Processing -- Received      20    14
 
      Granted      2     0
 
  E.

Other agency efforts to improve the timeliness of FOIA performance and to make records available to the public:
   

The NRC FOIA Web site lists all FOIA requests that were completed during the year by subject.
   

NRC provided training on the FOIA process to various staff offices emphasizing specific office needs.
   

NRC uses several internal agency service levels to enhance the agency’s processing timeliness.  Offices are provided with status reports of open cases to heighten management awareness.
    In addition to providing general public access to material released under the FOIA, in FY 2007, NRC placed more than 46,100 of its official agency records in its Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). These documents are available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records System (PARS) component of ADAMS. ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the NRC Library). NRC's extensive voluntary release program has resulted in 2.9 million documents made publicly available either in paper, microfiche, or electronic format.
 
IX.

Costs/FOIA Staffing
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  A. Staffing levels.
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    1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel
5
    2. Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work-years)
2
    3. Total number of personnel (in work-years)
7
 
  B. Total costs (including staff and all resources).
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    1. FOIA processing (including appeals) $ 1,109,456
    2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) $             0
    3. Total costs $ 1,109.456
    4. Comparison with previous year:
(5% increase from FY 2006)		 $ 1,060,923
X. Fees
 
  A. Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests. $8,063
 
  B. Percentage of total costs. .4%
   
XI. FOIA Regulations
 
 

10 CFR Part 9 (Available at NRC's Web site at
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part009/index.html)
 
 
  Fee Schedule (FY 2007)
 
  Search and Review
  SES/Commissioners (ES-Max) $85.83/hr $1.43/min  
  Professional (GG-13/6) $51.49/hr $0.86/min  
  Clerical (GG-7/7) $25.10/hr $0.42/min  
 
  Duplication: $0.20 per page
 
  Minimum fee: $15.00
(NRC does not charge a fee if the total fee is less than $15.00)
 
XII. Report on FOIA Executive Order Implementation
 
A.

On December 27, 2006, NRC forwarded a modified FOIA Improvement Plan to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The modification changed two items in NRC’s original plan.
 

  1. The original plan called for NRC to complete a computer-based FOIA training module in FY 2006. The modified plan changed the completion date to December 31, 2007.

  2. The original plan called for NRC to provide FOIA rotational assignment opportunities to the NRC staff. The modified plan does not include this action.
 
B. In FY 2007, NRC completed all of the actions outlined in Section F.2 in its modified FOIA Improvement Plan. A FOIA specialist was hired and began working at NRC on August 20, 2007. A full-time contractor was obtained beginning in October 2006, for FY 2007. NRC developed a FOIA computer-based training module and made it available to NRC staff on the NRC internal Web site on July 18, 2007. In FY 2007, NRC�s most noteworthy accomplishments were reducing the backlog of requests and implementing the use of redaction software to process requested documents. NRC reduced its backlog of pending requests by two from its reported backlog in FY 2006, in spite of a nine percent, 29-request increase from the FY 2006 level. NRC tested four commercial off-the-shelf redaction software products (Redax 4.0, FOIAXpress with Redax Plugin 5.3.6, Rapid Redact 1.48, and Brava Desktop). Redax 4.0 was selected. NRC completed testing for compatibility with agency systems in January 2007. In March 2007, NRC purchased and installed 1 package of media and 6 licenses for use by the FOIA/Privacy Team specialists. NRC also developed business processes for the use of Redax.
 
C. N/A
 
D. Although the following items listed in Section F.3 of its modified FOIA Improvement Plan were not scheduled for completion until after December 2007, NRC implemented the full-scale use of Redax in March 2007, and for FY 2007, NRC provided responses to complex FOIA request in 180 days or less, 94 percent of the time.
 
E. Exemption 1
  Exempts from public disclosure records that are specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy, and that are properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order.
 
  Exemption 2
 

Exempts from public disclosure internal personnel rules and policies of an agency (including internal information, which if disclosed would risk circumvention of a legal requirement).
 
  Exemption 3
 

Exempts from public disclosure by statute indicated: Sections 141─145 of the Atomic Energy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of Restricted Data or Formerly Restricted Data; Section 147 of the Atomic Energy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of Unclassified Safeguards Information; and 41 U.S.C. 253(b) which prohibits the disclosure of contractor proposals in the possession and control of an executive agency unless the proposal is incorporated in the final contract.
 
  Exemption 4
 

Exempts from public disclosure trade secrets, commercial, or financial Information that is confidential business (proprietary).
 
  Exemption 5
 

Exempts from public disclosure inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters which would not be available by law to a party in litigation with the agency.
 
  Exemption 6
 

Exempts from public disclosure personnel and medical files and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
 
  Exemption 7
 

Exempts from public disclosure records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information (A) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis, and, in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law, or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.
 
F.
  1. Ten Oldest Pending FOIA Requests (as of January 1, 2008). (NRC had no pending requests from prior calendar years.)

     

Calendar
Year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Requests
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Aug 24
Sept 18
Oct 2
Oct 2
Oct 5
Oct 12
Oct 15
Oct 15
Oct 25
Nov 2
  1. Consultations
    Consultations Received From Other Agencies During FY 2007 Consultations Received from Other Agencies that Were Processed During FY 2007 (include those received prior to FY 2007) Consultations Received from Other Agencies that Were Pending as of October 1, 2007 (include those received prior to FY 2007)
    10 11 0
     
    Calendar
    Year
    2000
    2001
    2002
    2003
    2004
    2005
    2006
    2007
    Consults
    Received
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0

    0
    1. Number of Consultations Received, Processed, and Pending

    2. Ten Oldest Pending Consultations Received From Other Agencies.  (No pending FY 2007 consultations from FY 2007 or prior calendar years.)
 
G. The electronic version of NRC's "FOIA Improvement Plan - Modified" can be found on our Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-improvement-plan-modified-12-27-06.pdf
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