Senator (Boxer) Threatens to Sue (NRC) Over Withheld Documents [View all]

[FBaggins]

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is threatening to sue the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for withholding information related to a now-defunct nuclear power plant that lawmakers and watchdog groups feared was a security risk. Southern California Edison decided last year to permanently close the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Boxer's home state after the senator raised concerns about damaged steam generators that activists said made the site vulnerable to sabotage. The lawmaker has demanded to get to the bottom of how defective technologies were permitted to be fielded from the outset.

NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane in November denied Boxer's claims that the agency was withholding information from the lawmaker. But Boxer pushed back during a Thursday hearing, saying the commission had yet to provide all the documents she requested.

"Maybe we have to go to court, maybe we have to sue you," Boxer told Macfarlane and the four other presidentially appointed commissioners. "I will get this information even if I have to go to whistleblowers."Boxer chastised the commissioners, saying NRC officials had said "very sweetly" that they would provide all the information she requested, and then later presented a "phony legal argument" claiming they were not required to do so.

...snip...

According to the senator, the commission introduced a new policy limiting the distribution of non-public information to members of Congress last year, prompting lawmakers to overturn the policy as part of appropriations legislation approved this month.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/global-security-newswire/senator-threatens-to-sue-nuclear-agency-over-withheld-documents-20140130

It would be interesting to see what that legislation says (and whether it can hold up in court).