10 C.F.R. § 1045.80 – What are the classification and declassification presumptions?

(a) The Director, Office of Classification and the Associate Under Secretary of Environment, Health, Safety and Security consider the presumptions in paragraph (b)(1) of this section before applying the criteria in § 1045.70. These presumptions concern information in certain but not all nuclear-related areas that may generally be presumed to be RD or are generally unclassified. The term “generally” here means that as a rule, but not necessarily in every case, the information in the identified area is presumed classified or not classified as indicated. Inclusion of specific existing information in one of the presumption categories does not mean that new information in a category is or is not classified, but only that arguments to differ from the presumed classification status of the information should use the appropriate presumption as a starting point.
(b) Information in the following areas is presumed to be RD:
1. (1) Detailed designs, specifications, and functional descriptions of nuclear explosives, whether in the active stockpile or retired;
2. (2) Material properties under conditions achieved in nuclear explosions that are principally useful only for design and analysis of nuclear weapons;
3. (3) Vulnerabilities of U.S. nuclear weapons to sabotage, countermeasures, or unauthorized use;
4. (4) Nuclear weapons logistics and operational performance information (e.g., specific weapon deployments, yields, capabilities) related to military utilization of those weapons required by DoD;
5. (5) Details of the critical steps or components in nuclear material production processes; and
6. (6) Features of military nuclear reactors, especially naval nuclear propulsion reactors, that are not common to or required for civilian power reactors.
(c) Information in the following areas is presumed to be unclassified:
1. (1) Basic science: Mathematics, chemistry, theoretical and experimental physics, engineering, materials science, biology, and medicine;
2. (2) Magnetic confinement fusion technology;
3. (3) Civilian power reactors, including nuclear fuel cycle information but excluding technologies for uranium enrichment;
4. (4) Source materials (defined as uranium and thorium and ores containing them);
5. (5) Fact of use of safety features (e.g., insensitive high explosives, fire resistant pits) to lower the risks and reduce the consequences of nuclear weapon accidents;
6. (6) Generic nuclear weapons effects;
7. (7) Physical and chemical properties of uranium and plutonium, most of their alloys and compounds, under standard temperature and pressure conditions;
8. (8) Nuclear fuel reprocessing technology and reactor products not revealing classified production rates or inventories;
9. (9) The fact, time, location, and yield range (e.g., “less than 20 kilotons” or “20-150 kilotons”) of U.S. nuclear tests;
10. (10) General descriptions of nuclear material production processes and theory of operation;
11. (11) DOE special nuclear material aggregate inventories and production rates not revealing the size of or details concerning the nuclear weapons stockpile;
12. (12) Types of waste products resulting from all DOE weapon and material production operations;
13. (13) Any information solely relating to the public and worker health and safety or to environmental quality; and
14. (14) The simple association or simple presence of any material (i.e., element, compound, isotope, alloy, etc.) at a specified DOE site.
  Editorial Note:At 88 FR 41294, June 26, 2023, § 1045.80(a) was amended; however, the amendment could not be incorporated due to inaccurate amendatory instruction.