On April 23, 2020, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal filed by The Seattle Times (Appellant) concerning a FOIA
request it made to the Department of Energy's (DOE) Richland Operations Office (ROO). Appellant's FOIA request sought interview records generated during a review of incidents of radiological contamination of personnel at the Hanford Site in 2019. ROO issued a response in which it provided Appellant with seventy-two pages of partially-redacted interview notes prepared by a "contractor resumption team" convened by a contractor at the Hanford Site. ROO explained in its response that it had redacted portions of the interview notes under the deliberative process privilege of Exemption 5 of the FOIA. On appeal, Appellant argued that the interview notes were not advisory or made in connection with a decision-making process, the contents of the interview notes were factual, and ROO had not established any harm that would result from the disclosure of the interview notes. Therefore, Appellant argued that ROO had inappropriately asserted Exemption 5 in redacting the interview notes. Upon review of the records in question, OHA concluded that the interview notes were prepared to advise the contractor on potential updates to policies and procedures at the site, that the notes reflected the opinions of the interviewees and interviewers and were not factual in nature, and that disclosure of the interview notes would have a chilling effect on the willingness of DOE and contractor employees to express their candid opinions on
deficiencies in policies and procedures in the future. OHA therefore concluded that ROO had properly asserted Exemption 5 in redacting portions of the records that it had provided to
Appellant. For these reasons, OHA denied Appellant's appeal. OHA Case No. FIA-20- 0024.