Enclosure 3 

Options for Loading and Maintaining 

Licensing Support Network Documents 

In Public ADAMS 

In accord with the Commission’s direction in CLI-13-8, 78 NRC 219, 230 (2013), and the 

associated November 18, 2013, Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM)1

, the documentary 

material from the various parties to the high-level waste (HLW) adjudicatory hearing, other than 

the NRC staff, that was accessible via the Licensing Support Network (LSN) at the time that 

system was decommissioned has been loaded into a nonpublic ADAMS library. That 

documentary material is accessible to internal agency users via the nonpublic ADAMS LSN 

library. Additionally Search Engine (i.e., the Option 2 search described 

below) has been applied to the nonpublic ADAMS LSN library to provide internal agency users 

with enhanced search capabilities. 

Per the direction in the Commission’s May 19, 2014, SRM2, outlined below are two Office of 

Information Services-provided options for making the LSN document collections, including the 

staff’s LSN documents, available in a single library in public ADAMS. Both options entail 

modifying the existing public ADAMS to accommodate access to, and allow searching of, the 

LSN documents. Each of the two options comprises a publish step and a public access step. 

Option 1: In the publish step, the content of the existing nonpublic ADAMS LSN library, 

along with the staff’s LSN documents that are in public ADAMS, would be published to a 

new LSN library in public ADAMS. In the public access step, the content of the LSN 

library in public ADAMS would be made available to the parties to the HLW adjudication 

and the public for searching and viewing. This option would provide the basic searching 

capabilities that are already available in public ADAMS (i.e., linear search capabilities 

that would access the basic content and metadata of the documents). 

Option 2: Under this option, the publish and public access steps would be the same as 

Option 1, except that enhanced search indexes would be created using the

Search Engine to allow for advanced (i.e., Boolean search and search-withinsearch) capabilities. 

Under both options, to implement the publish and public access steps, time and resources 

would be needed for development, testing, deployment, and conducting a security impact 

analysis. The security impact analysis would seek to determine whether and how the changes 

made to ADAMS caused by implementing the chosen option would affect the overall security of 

ADAMS and any connected NRC information systems. 

Because all of the documents provided to the NRC by the parties to the Yucca Mountain 

adjudication were previously publicly available, there are no plans to perform the standard 

ADAMS document review to identify and preclude the release of Sensitive Unclassified NonSafeguards Information prior to making the existing LSN collection public, and the current 

estimate assumes no such review. With regard to DOE documents, which make up most of the 

current LSN collection, DOE confirmed in a letter dated November 18, 2014 (ML14325A832) 

 

1

 Staff Requirements—SECY-13-0113—Memorandum and Order Concerning Resumption of Yucca Mountain 

Licensing Process, dated November 18, 2013 (ML13322A007). 

2

 SRM-COMSECY-14-0013, Staff Requirements – COMSECY-14-0013 – Yucca Mountain Project Activities, dated 

May 19, 2014 (ML14139A264). 

(b) (4) (b) (4) (b) (4)
 

- 2 - 

that all of its LSN documents or headers in the NRC’s possession can be made publicly 

available. 

Each of these options includes annual recurring costs for maintaining the system, including 

software licenses. Expenses associated with the long-term maintenance of LSN documents in 

public ADAMS would be paid using regular NRC fee-based appropriations. 

 All of the parties’ LSN documents are now NRC 

official agency records and must be preserved in compliance with National Archives and 

Records Administration requirements and other applicable laws. 

Relative to the timing of any decision on whether and when to create, load, and make 

accessible the public ADAMS LSN library, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel notes 

that if the adjudicatory hearing associated with licensing the Yucca Mountain repository were to 

be reinstituted, not having the public ADAMS LSN library in place at the time of restart would 

create the substantial likelihood that the discovery process will be delayed and/or extended. 

The pros and cons of the two options are listed below: 

Option 1 Option 2

Pros  Less expensive than Option 2

 Faster to implement than Option 2

 Would provide advanced Boolean and 

search-within-search capabilities that 

would provide the parties to the HLW 

adjudication and the public with 

accessibility to this discovery database of 

more than 3.66 million documents that 

more closely resembles what was 

available via the LSN’s search engine

 Once implemented under this option, the 

enhanced Search would 

be available without additional cost for all 

searches made in public ADAMS

Cons  Would provide linear searches only, 

using basic content and meta-data 

searches that would provide the parties 

to the HLW adjudication and the public 

with accessibility to this discovery 

database of more than 3.66 million 

documents that is less dynamic than

what was available via the LSN’s search 

engine and could require additional 

agency support to assist users in finding 

documents

 Would take more time (approximately 1 to 

3 additional months) to implement than 

Option 1

 More expensive than Option 1, primarily 

because of the search engine licensing 

requirements

(b) (5)

(b) (5)

(b) (5) (b) (4)
 

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Below is a breakdown of the costs and timing necessary to implement each option, including the 

annual costs associated with continuing maintenance of such a public records database. 

Cost of Loading and Storage (applies to both options) Funding Source

NWF Fee-based

Annual cost (for first year and annually thereafter) 

to lease and maintain additional servers to house LSN 

documents

First year (one-time) cost to deploy and configure servers for 

testing and publishing process, including security impact 

analysis

Option 1 (for searching and access)

Costs to modify public ADAMS to accommodate and allow 

searching of LSN documents

Total first-year funds required for Option 1 $385,000 $87,000

Total annual funds required for Option 1 after first year $0 $127,000 

Total implementation duration: 5 to 7 months, which is highly dependent on length of security 

authorization process

Option 2 (for searching and access)

Annual cost (for first year and annually thereafter) to acquire 

additional servers providing enhanced search capabilities 

Costs to acquire licenses for new servers 

First year (one-time) cost to install, maintain, 

and conduct additional security impact analysis 

for additional servers

Total first-year funds required for Option 2 $1,045,000 $165,000

Total annual funds required for Option 2 after first year $0 $321,000

Total implementation duration for Option 2: 6 to 8 months, which is highly dependent on length of 

security authorization process

(b) (4)

(b) (4)

(b) (4)

(b) (4)