NRC Shuts Website For "Security" Reasons: Agency Is Protecting The Nuclear Industry, Not The Public.

• Position: Biodevastation - Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Brief Article

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on October 11, 2001 shut down its website in order to remove potentially tens of thousands of pages of information about the nation's commercial nuclear power industry. The NRC left the following message on its site: "Our site is not operational at this time. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken the action to shut down its web site. In support of our mission to protect public health and safety, we are performing a review of all material on our site. We appreciate your patience and understanding during these difficult times."

"Why," asked Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), "if the information on the NRC's website is so potentially valuable to terrorists, did the NRC wait a full month to review its material?"

"The simple reason," said Mariotte, "is that the information is not particularly useful to terrorists, rather, it's useful to the US public, which monitors the safety of nuclear power reactors." Mariotte pointed out that plant-specific security-related information never has been posted on the NRC's website, nor made available in the agency's Public Document Rooms.

"We have no quarrel with the NRC removing any legitimate security-related information from public access," said Paul Gunter, Director of NIRS' Reactor Watchdog Project, "but we take issue with any NRC effort to remove documents regarding basic plant information, safety requirements, emerging radiation hazards and licensee compliance issues."

"In light of the agency's information blackout, NRC is obligated to also suspend a business-as-usual approach with the nuclear utilities," said Mariotte. "We are asking that the NRC adhere to its statutory requirements and regulatory commitment to...