FIA-22-0027 - In the Matter of Savannah River Site Watch

On September 22, 2022, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal filed by Savannah River Site Watch concerning a FOIA request made to the Department of Energy's (DOE)'s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Appellant's FOIA request sought reports pertaining to the Mixed Oxide (MOX) project including any project closure reports, project termination reports, lessons learned reports and "best practices" reports or assessments  concerning performance of NNSA and contractors during the time the project was winding down and after the MOX project termination was allowed to proceed by federal court. The Appellant narrowed the temporal scope of his FOIA request for reports from January 1, 2016, through November 19, 2021. NNSA referred the search to Savannah River Field Office (NA-SV) who referred the search to Savannah River Acquisition and Project Management Office (APMO) to conduct a search for responsive documents. APMO located three responsive documents which NNSA released to the Appellant. The appeal asserted that NNSA conducted an inadequate search because the responsive documents contained references to four additional missing documents, which Appellant contended should have been provided to him. APMO conducted searches using key words from Appellant's FOIA request, and searched locations that were all database that would include any " lessons learned" documents to the MOX project. APMO also searched the databases for the MOX Termination Project. Moreover, subsequent to being contacted by OHA regarding the appeal, APMO conducted new searches to attempt to locate two of the allegedly missing, responsive documents discussed in the appeal. OHA found that APMO provided a sufficiently detailed description of its searches, including the search terms used, the locations and storage systems where it searched, and how the search was conducted. Upon review, OHA determined that the searches were reasonably calculated to uncover responsive documents. Therefore, OHA denied Appellant's appeal . OHA Case No. FIA-22-0027.