U.S. Nuclear Regulator Approves Davis-Besse Restart

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, March 9, 2004 (ENS) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the restart of the troubled Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Oak Harbor, Ohio, on the banks of the Portage River 30 miles east of Toledo. The federal agency closed the plant more than two years ago after discovering that an acid leak had created a sizeable hole in the protective reactor lid.

In a letter informing the plant's operators of its decision, James Caldwell, regional administrator for the agency’s Region III office in Lisle, Illinois, wrote that regulators have "reasonable assurance" that the facility can be restarted and operated safely.

The NRC said the decision came after an extensive inspection by some 80 agency inspectors and contract experts, who assured officials that the plant's operators had made the required safety changes and repairs.

Gary Leidich, president of the FirstEnergy subsidiary in charge of the plant, welcomed the decision and said the company is "fully committed to operating this plant safely and reliably."

"We have the plant in excellent operating condition, well trained employees and new and enhanced programs to help ensure continued safe, reliable operation," he said.

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant (Photo courtesy Ottawa County Emergency Management)

They do not just have concerns about the operators, but also about the NRC, which has been blamed in part for the safety problems at the plant by its own internal investigators.

"We hope that the NRC will have learned some of its lessons … but we are not confident that the NRC is capable of putting safety first," said Sarah McKinney, an environmental associate with the Ohio Public Interest Group, which has authored a new report detailing the continued concerns at Davis-Besse.

Internal reports have shown that the NRC knew the reactor head at Davis-Besse was highly susceptible to cracks and leaks, in particular because the same type of problems had occurred at similar reactors.

The NRC established a December 31, 2001 deadline for full shutdown of the plants that it believed were of highest risk - including Davis-Besse.

But the federal agency granted the FirstEnergy's request for a delay and did not issue a shutdown order for Davis-Besse until February 16, 2002, when the plant was scheduled for routine maintenance.

In March 2002 plant operators discovered that boric acid from a leaking nozzle had created a hole six inches deep and nearly five inches wide in the reactor lid.

When the NRC inspected the damage, they detailed the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. nuclear reactor. The finding sparked a review of the 68 other pressurized water reactor plants in the United States.

An NRC task force found in October 2002 that a web of misinformation, poor regulatory oversight and operator negligence had allowed a preventable problem to become a serious safety hazard.

Operators and regulators, for example, had noted evidence of boric acid deposits in 1998 but did not take the finding seriously.

The NRC's Office of the Inspector General, its internal investigative agency, judged the agency's actions as improper.

The Inspector General found that the NRC knowingly permitted Davis-Besse to operate with reduced safety margins for the industry's "practical" convenience, and the agency could not assure protection of the public's health and safety due to these decisions.

Davis-Besse reactor vessel head insulation showing the damage caused by boric acid. (Photo courtesy NRC)

"Until the football sized hole was discovered two years ago, the NRC's grading system ranked Davis-Besse as one of the safest nuclear plants in the United States," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "With fewer than half of the known problems with that faulty grading system fixed, the NRC now ranks Davis-Besse as ready for restart. It is doubtful that their best guess now could be any better than it was two years ago."

And the concern is not limited to the NRC - while the reactor has been offline, it has experienced a number of operational problems ranging from faulty fire protection systems to weaknesses in crucial reactor coolant pumps.

FirstEnergy is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation stemming from charges that the company falsified safety data.

The company notes that it has spent some $600 million addressing the NRC's safety and operational concerns, including the replacement of the damaged reactor pressure head, the installation of a new leak monitoring system under the reactor vessel, and the expansion the containment emergency sump strainers.

Leidich said the plant will be restarted in "a deliberate and controlled manner" with reactor operators incrementally increasing reactor power, stopping at the 50 percent and 100 percent power levels to test equipment and assess operational performance.

Operators expect to reach full power within two weeks.

During the startup, the NRC will maintain round the clock inspection coverage of plant activities and expanded inspection coverage at Davis-Besse will continue beyond startup.