POLICY ISSUE

(Information)

January 26, 2007 SECY-07-0019

FOR: The Commissioners

FROM: Luis A. Reyes

Executive Director for Operations /RA/

SUBJECT: SUBMISSION OF THE ANNUAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REPORT

PURPOSE:

This paper conveys to the Commission a copy of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s

(NRC) annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Report for fiscal year (FY) 2006.

BACKGROUND:

With the enactment of the Electronic FOIA Amendments of 1996, Public Law 104-231, 101 Stat.

3048, Congress revised Subsection (e) of the FOIA, which pertains to the submission of annual

FOIA reports by Federal agencies. Congress directed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in

consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to issue guidelines for Federal

agencies to use in preparing and submitting their annual FOIA reports. 

Under the guidelines, Federal agencies are to send their annual reports to the DOJ Office of

Information and Privacy and include in their reports the agency-specific uniform resource locator

(URL) for Web-based access to their report. DOJ provides a single point of access on its Web

site for all annual FOIA reports, through a link to each agency’s FOIA page, and notifies

Congress when all reports have been posted on the agency’s Web site. 

DISCUSSION:

Enclosed is the NRC's Annual FOIA Report for FY 2006. Section VIII (page 7) of the enclosed

report compares NRC's FY 2006 data to FY 2005. The median number of days for pending

FOIA requests decreased significantly from 94 in FY 2005 to 15 at the close of FY 2006. This

84 percent decrease was achieved by closing several requests with thousands of pages that 

CONTACT: Russell A. Nichols, OIS/IRSD

301-415-7169
The Commissioners -2-

had been open for more than a year, driving up the number of days in FY 2005. The percent of

change from FY 2004 to FY 2005 was an increase of 74 percent (from 54 to 94) because of those

cases. With those cases closed, staff was able to focus on other requests. A reduction in the

number of incoming requests from 371 in FY 2005 to 320 in FY 2006 also enabled staff to focus

on older cases.

The NRC staff will submit the enclosed annual FOIA report for FY 2006 to the DOJ Office of

Information and Privacy and place the report on the NRC’s public Web site by February 1, 2007. 

The URL for the NRC’s annual FOIA report for FY 2006 will be

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-privacy.html.

The DOJ’s Office of Information and Privacy has requested additional information due to the

issuance of Executive Order 13392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.” The staff

included the requested information in Section XII of this report.

/RA/

Luis A. Reyes

Executive Director 

 for Operations

Enclosure:

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

 Annual FOIA Report: FY 2006
The Commissioners -2-

had been open for more than a year, driving up the number of days in FY 2005. The percent of

change from FY 2004 to FY 2005 was an increase of 74 percent (from 54 to 94) because of those

cases. With those cases closed, staff was able to focus on other requests. A reduction in the

number of incoming requests from 371 in FY 2005 to 320 in FY 2006 also enabled staff to focus

on older cases.

The NRC staff will submit the enclosed annual FOIA report for FY 2006 to the DOJ Office of

Information and Privacy and place the report on the NRC’s public Web site by February 1, 2007. 

The URL for the NRC’s annual FOIA report for FY 2006 will be

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-privacy.html.

The DOJ’s Office of Information and Privacy has requested additional information due to the

issuance of Executive Order 13392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.” The staff

included the requested information in Section XII of this report.

/RA/

Luis A. Reyes

Executive Director 

 for Operations

Enclosure:

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

 Annual FOIA Report: FY 2006

Distribution:

OIS (2) SECY

05–231 (OIS) OGC

FOIA OCA

EDO r/f OPA

WITS 200100009 CFO

ADAMS ACCESSION NUMBER: ML063110571

ADAMS DOCUMENT TITLE: SECY-XX-XXXX “Submission of the Annual Freedom of Information Act Report”

*See Previous Concurrence

OFFICE FOIA/IRSD FOIA/IRSD RFPSB/IRSD OCFO IRSD/OIS

NAME B. Culleen: BC R. Nichols: RN J. Janney :JL L. Tremper: LT J. Linehan: JL

DATE 1/11/07 1/11/07 1/11/07 1/11/07 1/11/07

OFFICE DD/OIS OIS DEDIA/CIO EDO QTE

NAME K. Greene: E. Baker: KGreene for J. Silber: L. Reyes: HChang: e-mail

DATE 1 /17/07 1/17 /07 1/24/07 1/26/07 1/11/07

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

ANNUAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REPORT:

FISCAL YEAR 2006

I. Basic Information Regarding Report

A. Name, title, address, and telephone number of person(s) to be contacted

with questions about the report.

Russell A. Nichols

Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer

Mail Stop T-5 F11

United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555-0001

Telephone: 301-415-7169 Fax: 301-415-5130

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

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-privacy.html

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

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,

e-mail PDR@NRC.GOV or fax at 301-415-3548. The mailing address is Public

Document Room, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC

20555-0001.

II. How to Make a FOIA Request

A. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all individual agency

components and offices that receive FOIA requests.

Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Officer

Mail Stop T-5 F11

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555-0001

Telephone: 301-415-7169 Fax: 301-415-5130

E-mail: FOIA@NRC.GOV

Electronic submittal http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/foia/foia-submittal-form.html

B. Brief description of agency’s response-time ranges.

37% within 4 weeks

60% within 6 weeks

67% within 8 weeks

Enclosure
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C. Brief description of why some requests are not granted.

To protect privacy (45%)

To prevent compromise of a pending investigation or proceeding (9%)

To protect the attorney-client privilege, attorney work products, or the agency’s

predecisional deliberative process (30%)

To protect proprietary information (16%)

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report

A. 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/r4//

B. Basic terms, expressed in common terminology.

1. Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request (FOIA/PA). 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 FOI 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.
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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).
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IV. Exemption 3 Statutes

A. List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current fiscal year.

1. Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each

statute.

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

2. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute. If

so, then cite example.

41 U.S.C.253b(m)(1) - Hornbostel v. U.S. Department of Interior, 305F

Supp. 2d21 (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)

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests

A. Numbers of initial requests.

1. Number of requests pending as of 

end of preceding fiscal year (09/30/2005) 80

2. Number of requests received during 

current fiscal year 320

3. Number of requests processed during 

current fiscal year 364

4. Number of requests pending as of 

end of current fiscal year (09/30/2006) 36

B. Disposition of initial requests.

1. Number of total grants 141

2. Number of partial grants 108

3. Number of denials 14

a. number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each

exemption once per request)

(1) Exemption 1 3

(2) Exemption 2 34

(3) Exemption 3 5

(4) Exemption 4 31

(5) Exemption 5 57

(6) Exemption 6 36

(7) Exemption 7(A) 17

(8) Exemption 7(B) 0

(9) Exemption 7(C) 49

(10) Exemption 7(D) 2

(11) Exemption 7(E) 3
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(12) Exemption 7(F) 0

(13) Exemption 8 0

(14) Exemption 9 0

4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 101

a. no records 33

b. referrals 2

c. requests withdrawn 27

d. fee-related reason 23

e. records not reasonably described 2

f. not a proper FOIA request for

some other reason 1

g. not an agency record 4

h. duplicate request 0

i. other (no response to identity verification (2),

 no response to release authorization

 (2), lack of response (4);

 referral (1) 9

VI. Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

A. Number of appeals.

1. Number of appeals received during fiscal year 10

2. Number of appeals processed during fiscal year 11

B. Disposition of appeals.

1. Number completely upheld 2

2. Number partially reversed 3

3. Number completely reversed 2

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 2

(5) Exemption 5 2

(6) Exemption 6 0

(7) Exemption 7(A) 1

(8) Exemption 7(B) 0

(9) Exemption 7(C) 1

(10) Exemption 7(D) 0

(11) Exemption 7(E) 1

(12) Exemption 7(F) 0

(13) Exemption 8 0

(14) Exemption 9 0
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4. Other reasons for nondisclosure (total) 4

a. no records 1

b. referrals 0

c. requests withdrawn 2

d. fee-related reason 0

e. records not reasonably described 0

f. not a proper FOIA request for

some other reason 0

g. not an agency record 0

h. duplicate request 0

i. other (fee waiver denial) 1

VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

FY 2006 median day calculations are based on working days.

A. Median processing time for requests processed during the year.

1. Simple requests (Track A)

a. number of requests processed 327

b. median number of days to process 13

2. Complex requests (Tracks B & C)

a. number of requests processed 35

b. median number of days to process 230

3. Requests accorded expedited processing

a. number of requests processed 2

b. median number of days to process 7

B. Status of pending requests.

1. Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 36

Track A 26

Track B 10

2. Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date:

Track A 12

Track B 77
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VIII. Comparisons with Previous Year(s)

Calculations are based on working days.

 % Change

FY 05 FY 06 FY 05 to FY 06

A. Number of requests received 371 320 -13%

B. Number of requests processed 345 364 6%

C. Median number of days requests 

were pending as of end of fiscal 

year 94 15 -84%

D. Other statistics significant to agency:

Expedited Processing - Received 34 20

Granted 14 2

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 2006 the NRC placed more than 49,115 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 Electronic Reading Room). 

NRC’s extensive voluntary release program has resulted in 2.9 million

documents made publicly available either in paper, microfiche, or electronic

format.
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IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

A. Staffing levels.

1. Number of full-time FOIA personnel 5

2. Number of personnel with part-time or 

occasional FOIA duties (in total work years) 3

3. Total number of personnel (in work years) 8

B. Total costs (including staff and all resources).

1. FOIA processing (including appeals) $ 1,060,923

2. Litigation-related activities (estimated) $ 0

3. Total costs $ 1,060,923

4. Comparison with previous year: $ 1,016,677

(4% increase from FY 2005)

X. Fees

A. Total amount of fees collected by agency 

for processing requests $28,450

B. Percentage of total costs 2.7%

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 2006)

Search and Review

SES/Commissioners (ES-4) $84.48/hr. $1.40/min

Professional (GG-13/6) $50.16/hr $0.83/min

Clerical (GG-7/7) $24.45/hr $0.40/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) 
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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. NRC completed the following actions as outlined in our initial FOIA Improvement

Plan.

Improvement Area 1: “Hire an additional full-time contractor to assist with

processing records in response to FOIA requests in FY 2007.”

Improvement Area 2: “Develop a process and begin acknowledging requests

through e-mail, no later than August 31, 2006.”

“Complete test of onscreen redaction software and identify best business

practices for using it, no later than January 31, 2007.”

Improvement Area 4: “Complete development of the specific plan for expedited

processing, no later than October 31, 2006.”

“Provide the expedited process plan and educate FOIA coordinators and senior

management FOIA officials, no later than November 30, 2006.”

Improvement Area 5: “Update the FOIA guide on the NRC FOIA Web site and

the annual end of year report to DOJ to include examples of the NRC record

categories for each FOIA exemption used by NRC, no later than September 30,

2006.”

C. N/A

D. N/A

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
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Exempts from public disclosure internal personnel rules and policies of an

agency.

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)

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. The date range for requests pending was from July 3, 2006 to January

31, 2007.
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2. NRC has no ongoing consultations with other agencies.

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/executive-order.html and on that page select

“FOIA Improvement Plan - Modified.”