Nuclear Regulatory Commission Will No Longer Release Nuclear Plant Security Violation Information

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that it would stop releasing information on security gaps found at U.S. nuclear power plants and the enforcement actions imposed on facility operators, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, July 22).

Previously, the commission has released regular updates on the security problems found during nuclear plant inspections. “We need to blacken some of our processes so that our adversaries won’t have that information,” said NRC Office of Nuclear Safety and Incident Response Director Roy Zimmerman. 

While the commission voted in March to change its policy, the move was announced yesterday at the first public NRC hearing on power plant safety held since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (Malia, Rulon, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Aug. 5).

U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) yesterday criticized the NRC’s move, saying it blocked plant security flaws from “public scrutiny.”

“This misguided NRC policy will further deepen public skepticism of the commission’s performance and calls into question whether the commission is doing what it must do to keep nuclear reactors safe from terrorist attack,” Markey said in a statement (Markey release, Aug. 4).

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