Spotlight
Digital ID Requested Questions and Answers
On this page:
Communications with NRC
- Who do I contact at NRC for Electronic Document Submission Help?
- What is the Criminal History Program?
- How do I contact NRC for General Guidance and Help?
- What is the website address for the Electronic Information Exchange (EIE)?
- What is the website address for the Electronic Hearing Docket?
Document Formatting Requirements
Certificate Enrollment and Installation
- What must I do prior to enrolling for a VeriSign certificate?
- How long will my certificate last and what is the cost to NRC?
- If I enrolled for a VeriSign Certificate, but hasn't received an approval or rejection email message, what should I do?
- What can the NRC EIE Certificates Administrator do to resolve the problem of a user enrolling for a certificate and not receiving an approval or rejection message?
- If the user received a certificate approval and pickup email message, but hasn't been able to successfully download the certificate to his/her Internet Explorer browser, then what might be the problem?
- If you received and installed a VeriSign certificate for document submission through NRC, but this certificate doesn't appear to be working what might be the problem?
- Can NRC staff use the broadband VeriSign certificates to securely access the EIE system?
Certificate Management
- How do I see if an EIE certificate is loaded on my PC?
- I lost my certificate and don't remember my "Challenge Phrase". Can NRC revoke my old certificate?
- I am changing jobs. How do I cancel or revoke my VeriSign certificate?
Communications with NRC
Who do I contact at NRC for Electronic Document Submission Help?
Answer: There are a variety of NRC contact email addresses and phone numbers. The correct phone number or email address depends both upon the NRC program area to receive your electronic submission and upon the type of assistance needed. Here is an organized list of contacts:
- Adjudicatory Proceedings
- Office of the Secretary
- Phone: (301) 415-1679 or (301) 415-1966
- Email: Hearing.Docket@nrc.gov
- NRCs Public Document Room Staff
- NRCs Public Document Room Staff
- Phone: (301) 415-4737 or 1 (800) 397-4209
- Email: PDR.Resource@nrc.gov
- The NRC's Public Document Room support hours are:
- 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST on Monday - Friday
- Criminal History Help
- Criminal History Program
- Phone: (301) 492-3531
- Email: CrimHist.Resource@nrc.gov
- The General Form Help
- Phone: (301) 415-0439
- Email: General.FormResource@nrc.gov
- VeriSign Certificate Help
- Phone: (301) 415-0439
- Email: DigitalID.HelpResource@nrc.gov
- Fitness for Duty Help:
- Phone: (301) 415-5949
What is the Criminal History Program?
Answer: NRC's Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) system is used by personnel security staff at nuclear power plants to communicate electronically with the NRC staff for the purpose of doing security background checks on contractors and employees.
How do I contact NRC for General Guidance and Help?
OPA.Resource@nrc.gov – This email address is the best address for the public to send their general questions. This email address is monitored by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Public Affairs.
What is the website address for the Electronic Information Exchange (EIE)?
Electronic Information Exchange Website: http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html
What is the website address for the Electronic Hearing Docket?
There are two separate electronic hearing docket libraries. One contains the docket for the High-Level Waste Hearing while the other serves the Reactors, Materials and other Hearings.
To reach the EHD libraries select: Access the EHD LibrariesDocument Formatting Requirements
What document formats are acceptable to NRC for electronic submissions? Where can I find document submission formatting information?
Documents are to be submitted in Adobe Acrobat format. This EIE website link provides information on filing requirements:
http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/faqs/digital-id-qa/file-requirements.html
Certificate Enrollment and Installation
What must I do prior to enrolling for a VeriSign certificate?
You need to first contact someone at NRC in the program area relating to your planned documents submission and be issued an NRC Approval Code. This code is needed in the VeriSign certificate enrollment process. See Program Area Contacts.
How long will my certificate last and what is the cost to NRC?
Certificates are presently issued for a one year period. The NRC will begin to transition to two year certificates in 2010. Certificate holders will be sent a reminder email 1 and 2 weeks prior to expiration of their certificate. This email will include instructions and a website link. NRC purchases EIE certificates from VeriSign in blocks of 500. The cost to NRC is about $25 per certificate, but NRC provides certificates to applicants at no charge.
If I enrolled for a VeriSign Certificate, but hasn't received an approval or rejection email message, what should I do?
You should receive an automated email message reply message within minutes of your enrollment for a certificate. This is only an enrollment receipt acknowledgement. Within 3 business days or less you should receive either a VeriSign certificate approval email message or a VeriSign certificate rejection message. If you don't receive these email messages or are having any other digital id certificate problem send an email to DigitalID.HelpResource@nrc.gov.
What can the NRC EIE Certificates Administrator do to resolve the problem of a user enrolling for a certificate and not receiving an approval or rejection message?
The EIE Certificates Administrator has a couple options for solving this problem.
Option 1 is to request that the certificate request approval email message be sent again by doing the following steps as certificate administrator:
- Logon to EIE/VeriSign Admin
- View Requests
- [x] Approved
- Select the appropriate date range
- Click on the "Submit" button
- Look for and select the desired approved request
- Click on the "Re-send Approval E-mail" option.
Option 2 is to find out what the VeriSign PIN number is and then talk the person through the certificate pickup process. To use this approach the EIE certificate administrator needs to view details in order to get the pickup pin number. Here are the following steps:
- Logon to EIE/VeriSign Admin
- View Requests
- [x] Approved
- Select the appropriate date range
- Click on the "Submit" button
- Look for and select the desired approved request
- Click on the "View Details" button
- The Pick Pin is listed under Applicant Information
Then the digital id certificate administrator would provide the user with the website address and instructions by either phone or email for picking up the certificate. This web link and instructions are normally sent to users in a "Your Digital ID is ready" message upon approval of the enrollment request.
If the user received a certificate approval and pickup email message, but hasn't been able to successfully download the certificate to his/her Internet Explorer browser, then what might be the problem?
One reason for not being able to pickup a VeriSign certificate might be that VeriSign requires that a certificate be picked up using exactly the same computer from which the certificate was requested via enrollment. This is done by VeriSign for security reasons and the user must use the same PC for both enrollment and certificate pickup.
If you received and installed a VeriSign certificate for document submission through NRC, but this certificate doesn't appear to be working what might be the problem?
The first thing consider is are you using the Internet Explore Browser to submit documents and is your certificate install in this browser. The steps to view the VeriSign certificate in Internet Explorer are:
- Log onto the PC as the user who installed the certificate into the browser on this PC
- Open the Internet Explorer Browser
- Choose <Tools> menu option
- Choose <Internet Options> menu option
- Choose <Content> tab
- Choose [Certificates] button
- With <Personal> chosen – this is the default check the following
- The certificate should have your name in the Issued To field
- The certificate should have "VeriSign Class 2 OnSite Individual CA" in the issued by field
- The certificate should have a date in the Expiration Date field which is in the future.
One other reason why a VeriSign certificate may not work is if the browser doesn't contain of the needed Intermediate Certification Authorities. One way this can happen is if the user exports the certificate from one PC and imports it to another PC. If the user didn't check the box for:
"[X] Include all certificates" during the certificate export process. When this happens the user will be missing the "VeriSign Class 2 On-Site Individual Certificate Authority (CA)" in their certificate path.
Can NRC staff use the broadband VeriSign certificates to securely access the EIE system?
Yes. The EIE system works fine with either the NRC Broadband certificates or the EIE certificate. You will still need to have your name added to the appropriate service list and you will need to install the forms viewer on your PC in order to submit documents via EIE.
Certificate Management
How do I see if an EIE certificate is loaded on my PC?
See what certificates are currently installed in your Internet Explorer browser.
The steps to view the VeriSign certificate in Internet Explorer are:
- Log onto the PC as the user who installed the certificate into the browser on this PC
- Open the Internet Explorer Browser
- Choose <Tools> menu option
- Choose <Internet Options> menu option
- Choose <Content> tab
- Choose [Certificates] button
The VeriSign certificate should say:
Issued by: VeriSign Class 2 OnSite Individual CA
Valid from mm/dd/yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy
It is a good idea to make sure the VeriSign certificate has not expired.
I lost my certificate and don't remember my "Challenge Phrase". Can NRC revoke my old certificate?
Yes. The digital id certificate administrator can revoke a user's certificate at any time. The administrator will need the user's name and email address used on the certificate.
I am changing jobs. How do I cancel or revoke my VeriSign certificate?
Answer: You can revoke your own certificate from the following website: https://onsite.verisign.com/services/USNuclearRegulatoryCommissionADDOCIO/client/revoke.htm. First you must locate the correct certificate. Then you must select it by clicking on the user's name and reviewing the certificate details. Next you select the Revoke button on this website. You must now provide the "Challenge Phrase" which you provided during enrollment for the certificate.