# Presentation: 183533

## Ten Steps Toward Understanding Export Controlled Information

**Dave Hamrin**
**2006 STI Program Meeting**
**April 2006**

## What Qualifies Me to Give this Talk?

**I’ve had ECI training five times:**
**1989: At Argonne, had training to the Troy Wade letter**
**March 1995: Trained to Interim Guidelines at a hotel in Oak Ridge**
**October 1996: Trained in basement of the local Federal Bldg.**
**February 1997: Took PNNL ECI training at PNNL**
**Later in 1997: Took PNNL “Train the trainer” training at the Y-12 Plant**

## Qualifications (con’t.)

**Attended the Export Control Coordinators Conference (ECCO) five times**
**Was ECCO Recording Secretary for four years**
**Am a concurrer for Foreign Visits and Assignments at ORNL**
**Chat with the ORNL Export Compliance Dept. on a daily basis**

## Step One

**November 1947 is the earliest record I can locate that discusses export control in the AEC.**
**Nevertheless, the 1947 memo clearly seems to be a precursor of the current DOE Guidelines**

## Step Two

**Growing interest during the 1980s by auditors and the government in general gave rise to the report “Technology Security”**
**Table of Contents of this document closely resembles the format and phrasing of the current DOE Guidelines**

## Step Three

**Issuance of the “Troy Wade letter” is accompanied by site visits across the DOE complex**
**These guidelines are clearly stated to be Interim in anticipation of a DOE Order on ECI**

## Step Four

**Export  Control makes headlines**
**Sale of 20% of a working fuel reprocessing plant to an Idaho used-car salesman and accompanied FOIA request providing the manuals and blueprints to run the plant led to a CBS news segment by Connie Chung**
**Provides the impetus for the next step**

## Step Five

**On November 3, 1994, the document “Interim Guidelines on Export Control and Nonproliferation” are issued by DOE’s Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation**
**Guidelines tell how to review, mark, and handle ECI **

## Step Six

**In 1997, the Interim Guidelines are replaced by the Final Guidelines**
**Hope for a FOIA exemption for DOE ECI seems to have faded**
**DOE Order on ECI therefore lacks statutory basis and is not issued**

## Step Seven

**The relationship between “foreign visits and assignments” and “deemed exports” takes center stage**
**Worries abound that “sensitive nuclear technology” is being transferred on a daily basis through normal scientific exchange and exposure to items that are export controlled**

## Step Eight

**In July of 1999, Final Guidelines are updated to clarify “deemed export” concerns**
**This update seems clearly to be in response to government auditors**

## Step Nine

**The topic of “deemed exports” heats up OUTSIDE the Dept. of Energy**
**Report “Deemed Export Controls May Not Stop the Transfer of Sensitive Technology to Foreign Nationals in the U.S.” is issued by the Dept. of COMMERCE Inspector General**
**New, clearer definitions are sought**

## Step Ten

**Proposed rulemaking change to “revise and clarify” deemed exports.  The term “use” would be defined as “all aspects of use, such as operation, installation, maintenance, repair, overhaul, or refurbishing.”**
**Virtual firestorm of complaints from academia and others seems to solve the problem for now **

## Reviewing for ECI

**Is the subject on the Sensitive Subjects list?**
**Could uncontrolled release reasonably be expected to contribute to nuclear proliferation or harm national security?**
**If so, mark and handle according to the Guidelines**

## Summary

**I’ve tried to provide a history of “how we got here from there”**
**Lack of DOE Order on ECI has muddied the waters substantially, since requirement for ECI reviews lacks resource assessments, implementation plans, standardization across sites, and a clear audit trail**
**Topic is more apt to grow than shrink**

## Questions?

**No answers are promised; opinions available upon request**