The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today will likely release more than 3,000 pages of redacted telephone transcripts that outline the agency's response during the first 10 days of the March 2011 nuclear crisis in Japan.

The document release responds to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests and will be posted on the agency's website at about 2 p.m. today, NRC officials said.

The 3,300 pages are expected to provide a look at how NRC's heavily criticized Chairman Gregory Jaczko managed the commission's response to the disaster that crippled Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor and sent shock waves through the U.S. nuclear industry.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami wiped out power to six reactors at the Fukushima site on Japan's northeastern shore, triggering explosions, radioactive leaks and multiple evacuations. Three of the units suffered core meltdowns, and efforts are still under way to clean up the site.

Within days of the disaster, NRC struggled to obtain information about the accident and to reassure the public that the United States' 104 operating reactors were safe. The accident triggered widespread public anxiety over the safety of U.S. reactors and a national review of current nuclear safety rules and regulations.

NRC's document release could shed light on some of the chairman's controversial decisions that unfolded within days of the accident.

In one instance, Jaczko called for a rare "emergency" status, transferring certain commission decisionmaking powers to himself.

Jaczko has said that those powers are inherent to his position and that he used them because of concerns that the tsunami spawned by the quake could hit the United States. Republicans, however, have criticized the chairman for possibly silencing his fellow commissioners during that time (Greenwire, April 29, 2011).