FirstEnergy
has again postponed restart and withheld pertinent information
about the readiness of the facility
to produce electricity
July 28, 2003
Vivian E. Stephens
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
175 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 900
Chicago, IL 60604
Re: FirstEnergy Corporation, Reference
MRO-929785 (EC #673)
Dear Ms. Stephens,
Thank you for your letter dated July
9, 2003, confirming receipt of our
petition for enforcement against FirstEnergy
Corp. I am writing to provide additional
material to support our petition.
I ask that you forward this information
to the appropriate persons.
One of the two allegations put forth
in our petition is FirstEnergy’s failure
to provide a realistic restart time
frame for the Davis-Besse nuclear
power plant in Oak Harbor, OH. Davis-Besse
closed in February 2002 to conduct
a government-mandated inspection and
to refuel. During the inspection,
the company identified serious corrosion
of the reactor pressure vessel. The
plant has been closed ever since.
Since we filed our petition, FirstEnergy
has again postponed restart and withheld
pertinent information about the readiness
of the facility to produce electricity:
In the first week of July, FirstEnergy
submitted a report to the NRC that
identified yet another problem with
a safety system that is supposed to
help control the temperature of the
reactor after a major accident. Valves
in the hydrogen-detection equipment
were corroded shut, leading plant
engineers to believe the system may
have failed in the event of an accident.
On July 8, 2003, one week later, the
NRC hosted a public meeting with FirstEnergy.
The purpose of the meeting was for
FirstEnergy management to update the
NRC and members of the public on the
progress of repairs at Davis-Besse.
The meeting was attended by members
of the public, the media, and financial
analysts. Lew Myers, C.O.O. for FirstEnergy
Nuclear Operating Company and his
staff established at the meeting that
Davis-Besse would be ready for restart
by late August or early September.
Neither Mr. Myers nor any member of
his staff mentioned the report or
the corroded valves at the meeting.
On July 15, two weeks after the corroded
valves were reported to the NRC and
one week after a public meeting, the
report from FirstEnergy was made public.
On July 23, FirstEnergy announced
Davis-Besse would not be ready for
restart until late September (Reuters).
On July 24, FirstEnergy backed away
from their announcement the previous
day and stated that Davis-Besse would
be ready for restart sometime in the
fall.
I have attached an updated list of
FirstEnergy’s restart sates and a
few news articles for reference. We
appreciate your careful consideration
of our petition for enforcement.
Sincerely,
Amy K. Ryder, Cleveland Director
Ohio Citizen Action
Cc: Stephen Cutler
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