U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

FISCAL YEAR 2005 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE 

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

ON E-GOVERNMENT ACT OF 2002

OCTOBER 21, 2005 

This report responds to Karen Evan’s July 28, 2005, memorandum to Chief Information Officers

on FY 2005 E-Government Act reporting instructions.

Overview 

This report highlights the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) accomplishments in

implementing the E-Government Act of 2002 (E-Gov Act), describes the agency’s National

Source Tracking System to illustrate an agency-specific E-Gov initiative, and explains NRC’s

process for determining whether to make information publically available on the Internet.

Agency’s Overall Implementation of the E-Gov Act

Compliance With OMB Guidance: NRC has taken a number of steps to institutionalize OMB’s

guidance on the E-Gov program. The Office of Administration has instructed NRC’s Contract

Management Centers to use the SmartBuy contract as the preferred choice for software

acquisitions. NRC has added an acquisition official from the Office of Administration to its

Information Technology Business Council (ITBC) to ensure that agency investments in

information technology do not overlap E-Gov initiatives. NRC has also given OMB NRC’s

E-Gov implementation plan and has begun tracking high-risk E-Gov initiatives as required.

Implementations Completed/Planned: NRC has completed migrations to E-Payroll,

E-Clearance (E-Qip), and a number of Integrated Acquisition System (IAS) sub components

and has a working agreement with USA Services. In addition to basic services, USA Services

will provide help desk support for the licensing proceeding for the proposed high-level waste

repository at Yucca Mountain. NRC is currently migrating to four other initiatives: E-Training,

E-Travel, Disaster Management Information System, and E-Authentication. 

Adherence to Department of Commerce Standards: The NRC standards for information

management and information technology are documented in the agency’s Technical Reference

Model (TRM). The standards are consistent and compliant with all mandatory and required

standards published in the Federal Information Processing Standards publications on the

Secretary of Commerce’s Web site.

Electronic Signatures: The NRC Infrastructure Services and Support Program includes the

Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) service. EIE was established to support secure

electronic transmission of forms and documents. The system was designed to provide an

essential service using a Managed Public/Private Key Infrastructure technology. The agency’s

use of electronic transmissions officially began in January 2001 and has grown each year. 

Electronic submittals to the agency allows automated processing saving money and reducing

document processing and distribution times. EIE also supports the OMB 1998 Government

Paperwork Elimination Act requirement that Federal agencies provide for the options of
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electronic maintenance, submission, or disclosure of information when practicable as a

substitute for paper and use and acceptance of electronic signatures when practicable.

Service Provisions for People Without Access to the Internet: NRC maintains a Public

Document Room (PDR) where copies of NRC publicly available records can be read. Copies

can be ordered in person or by phone. The PDR has a toll-free number (1-800-397-4209) to

assist members of the public that do not have Internet access. The PDR can also provide

bibliographies based on subject searches of the public databases to give users an idea of what

documents are available. The PDR has a copy service. It is not uncommon to refer people to

the nearest public library for further assistance since most public libraries now have Internet

access.

Enterprise Architecture: NRC’s goal is to improve its OMB Enterprise Architecture (EA)

assessment score to at least a 3.0, the level necessary to achieve a yellow on the President’s

Management Agenda Scorecard.

NRC has begun using a Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) checklist that is updated

annually to reflect new FEA products and A-11 guidance. NRC used the current checklist to

verify that FEA requirements were met on the Exhibit 300s and the Exhibit 53 that accompanied

our FY 2007 budget submission to OMB. NRC uses a standard project management

methodology with EA checklists and action items.

A Web-based Enterprise Architecture Repository System (EARS) using Popkin System

Architect is in place to help NRC managers make IT investment decisions. EARS provides a

searchable, structured view of NRC’s As-Is, To-Be, and Target EA, including its systems,

technologies, and services. EARS does searches based on FEA components, E-Gov

initiatives, business functions, key words and phrases, applications, systems, technologies,

offices, project or functional managers, as well as free-form searches.

EARS has proven to be effective in preventing duplicate efforts in new investments, and also in

encouraging collaboration and communication between organizations and informing the agency

on NRC’s participation and use of E-Gov initiatives and other new and existing NRC IT and IM

initiatives.

Agency-Specific E-Government Initiative

The agency’s National Source Tracking System (NSTS) is an example of a cross-government

agency-specific E-Gov initiative.

The NRC-operated NSTS is being developed to support implementation of a forthcoming rule

on national source tracking of sealed sources. The rule will affect 10 CFR Parts 20, 32, and

150. This initiative will help to address the potential threat of radiological dispersal devices

(RDDs), also known as “dirty bombs.” These devices use conventional explosives to release

attached nuclear materials. The NSTS will track individual nuclear sealed sources that contain

“materials of greatest concern” throughout their entire life cycle, (manufacture, storage,

transfer, possession, and disposition). Pending completion of NSTS development, tracking is

performed using an interim database with periodic data loads from affected NRC and

Agreement State licensees.

The creation of NSTS was first recommended in a May 2003 report of the joint NRC and

Department of Energy (DOE) RDD Working Group. The Government Accountability Office
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(GAO) also recommended a national source tracking system. The Energy Policy Act of 2005

requires the NRC to issue regulations establishing a radiation source tracking system. The

NSTS will support all of these concerns and will comply with the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources (Code of

Conduct). 

In late 2003, the NRC began activities needed to develop the NSTS under the SafeSource

Phase II project. This project will leverage the technology platform established by the

SafeSource Phase I Web-based Licensing System (WBL) project. Recognizing that the NSTS

must be a collaboration of multiple Federal and State agencies, NRC established a governance

and project management structure with representation from significant Government

stakeholders:

• The SafeSource Steering Committee has NRC, DOE, and Agreement State

representation and is tasked with policy direction and oversight of the SafeSource

Phase II NSTS Working Group and the SafeSource Phase I Web-based Licensing

Working Group. 

• The SafeSource Phase II NSTS Working Group has NRC, DOE, and Agreement

State representation and will define NSTS system requirements, recommend the

necessary regulatory changes, provide input to the business case, and contribute to the

development and implementation efforts. 

• The NSTS Interagency Coordinating Committee advises the SafeSource Steering

Committee and the SafeSource Phase II NSTS Working Group on Federal interagency

requirements for source tracking. This committee has representation from NRC, DOE,

and Agreement States and also from the Environmental Protection Agency and the

Departments of State, Transportation, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security and 

Justice (including the Federal Bureau of Investigation),

The efforts to define the requirements and business case for NSTS were completed in late

2004. The business case was then reviewed and endorsed by the NRC ITBC, the Chief

Information Officer, and the Executive Director for Operations. The business case analysis and

alternatives considered four potential solutions and evaluated numerous existing Government

and commercial off-the-shelf systems. The selected alternative is to custom-build this system,

using the application server and database server architectures and licenses obtained for the

SafeSource Phase I WBL project. The NSTS requirements are that the system support eight

major business functions:

• Monitor the location, possession, and disposal of radioactive sources of concern

throughout the country

• Improve accountability and give more accurate and timely information to

decision-makers

• Detect and support responses to tracking discrepancies (e.g., lost shipments)

• Inspect and investigate

• Effectively communicate with other agencies about radioactive source information
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• Respond to emergencies

• Verify legitimate import, export, ownership, and use of radioactive sources

• Support further analysis of hazards attributable to the possession and use of radioactive

materials

NSTS access will be primarily Web-based, but the SafeSource Phase II support contract

provides a user help desk and data entry support for licensees who prefer to or can only

provide data in hard copy, by fax, by telephone, or by other means. 

The business cost/benefit analysis indicated that the selected NSTS approach will avoid

substantial cost mostly because NSTS will provide a simplified interface for prompt reporting of

information about nuclear sources and related transfers. NSTS will be an almost real-time

centralized repository of information on nuclear sources and will generate alert notifications to

designated agency staff when certain business or system events occur. These capabilities will

effectively support the NRC’s goal to understand and monitor the transfer of nuclear sources. 

Without NSTS, the NRC would have to manually locate and compile physical source transfer

documents in order to provide the needed nuclear source transfer reports. Manual process is

time-consuming, costly, and delays the distribution of the information. The overall NSTS

return-on-investment over the initial 6 year period of operation is estimated to be 45%.

The NSTS project is following the recently developed NRC Project Management Methodology,

based largely on the industry standard Rational Unified Process for software development. The

project is managed by a certified Project Management Professional and is following Project

Management Institute best practices. Extensive independent verification and validation (IV&V)

contractor support is planned for the NSTS effort. The use of IV&V and proven project

management practices is key to NRC’s success for the timely deployment of NSTS.

Determining Which Agency Information Will Be Made Available on the Internet

The NRC makes as much information as possible available to the public relating to the

agency’s health and safety mission. NRC intends to automatically make information publicly

available if the information is anticipated to be of interest to the public without anyone needing

to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. An internal NRC management directive

specifies what categories of documents are to be made publicly available by the staff. Using

this guidance, NRC makes approximately 200 to 300 documents publicly available each day.

a. Describe your process for determining which Government information the agency

intends to make available and accessible to the public on the Internet and by

other means.

The NRC's policy for making information available to the public is in 10 CFR 2.390

(http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part002/part002-0390.html), which

was available for public comment during the rulemaking process. It was last updated on

January 14, 2004. The agency's practice for releasing information is described in

Management Directive 3.4, “Release of Information to the Public.” NRC documents

made public are accessible in the Public Library of the Agencywide Documents Access

and Management System (ADAMS) (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html) which

is available from the NRC Web site (http://www.nrc.gov). By means of an ADAMS Web

search (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html), stakeholders can
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search all full-text documents with the web-based search engine. NRC’s Electronic

Reading Room page (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html) has links to ADAMS and to 

other pages that list the most frequently requested documents. See Basic References

(http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref.html) and Document Collections

(http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/.) Parties to NRC hearings have

convenient access to hearing-related materials through NRC’s Electronic Hearing

Docket (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ehd.html) and the HLW Hearing Docket

(http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ehd.html#2) pages. 

The NRC Web site is designed to achieve three major objectives: (1) to increase

openness by providing information that enhances the ability of stakeholders to

participate effectively in the regulatory process; (2) to broaden the public’s

understanding of NRC’s mission, goals, and performance; and (3) to make doing

business with the NRC easier by enhancing access to agency information and making

tools available for conducting business electronically.

The goal of enhancing participation in the regulatory process is served by our Public

Involvement page (http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve.html), which has links to pages with

opportunities to learn about public meetings, comment on proposed rules and draft

documents, request agency enforcement actions, participate in hearings, and ask NRC

to change or establish a regulation. Members of the public may also comment on

proposed rulemaking actions through the Federal E-Rulemaking Portal

http://www.regulations.gov. 

The goal of broadening the public’s understanding of NRC’s mission, goals, and

performance is addressed by the sections of our site on Who We Are

(http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are.html), What We Do

(http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do.html), Reactors (http://www.nrc.gov/reactors.html),

Materials (http://www.nrc.gov/materials.html), and Waste

(http://www.nrc.gov/waste.html). Information about specific regulated facilities is

provided in the other main section of the site, the Facility Information Finder

(http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder.html).

The goal of conducting business electronically is addressed by our Electronic Submittals

Page (http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie.html), which stakeholders can use to submit

documents electronically to the NRC. As mentioned earlier, NRC also has electronic

hearing dockets.

b. Include a copy of the priorities and schedules for making your information

available and accessible.

In most cases, NRC documents are available to the public in 5 working days after the

document was entered into ADAMS. The 5-day timeframe for releasing internally

generated documents is based on NRC’s experience that if release times are “shorter”

recipients sometimes do not receive the document before the document is available to

the public. 

For documents addressed to the NRC, the 5-day release time allows the agency to

review a document to ensure that it does not contain proprietary, privacy or other

sensitive information that should not be made public.
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Certain documents will still be excluded from this policy, and can be released either

sooner or later than the 5-working-day goal. For example, NRC documents addressed

to external persons or organizations may be released earlier when the NRC has verified

that the addressee has in fact received the document. Press releases will be put out for

immediate release.

The priorities and schedules were based on these criteria and the agency’s experience

with a initial 3 working-day release time for documents entered into ADAMS.

c. Explain how and when such final determinations, priorities, and schedules were

available for public notice and comment.

This information was made available through a January 14, 2004, Federal Register

notice on 10 CFR 2.390(69 FR 2182).

d. Provide the link where final determinations, priorities, and schedules can be

found on your principal Federal agency public website.

Section 2.390 can be found on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doccollections/cfr/part002/part002-0390.html. The link to priorities and schedules is at

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2000/00-083.html. More details

about information the NRC releases to the public are given on the Internet at

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/faq.html.

e. Identify progress to date for permitting searching of all files intended for public

use on the website, displaying search results in order of relevancy to search

criteria, and providing response times appropriately equivalent to industry best

practices.

NRC’s search engine for both its Web site and ADAMS organizes and displays search

results in order of relevancy to search criteria, and responds in less than 2 seconds.