Regional News
| Article published Saturday, October 4, 2003 TMI neighbors seek meeting
Seven Pennsylvania residents who lived near the
Three Mile Island nuclear plant at the time of its 1979 accident
sent a letter yesterday to FirstEnergy Corp.’s top executive,
requesting a face-to-face meeting about Davis-Besse.
"Our
families lived through the Three Mile Island accident in 1979," said
the letter, sent to Peter Burg, the utility’s chairman and chief
executive officer. "As you consider whether to restart the troubled
Davis-Besse plant on Lake Erie, we invite you to meet with us to get
a firsthand understanding of the human consequences of a major
nuclear accident."
The letter was signed by Deb Katz, Gene
Stilp, Paula Kinney, Mary Osborn, Joyce Corradi, Helen Hocker, and
Kay Pickering. Ms. Corradi told The Blade all seven still live in
the area of Three Mile Island, and some are affiliated with a local
grass-roots group called Concerned Mothers and Women.
She
said they were contacted by Ohio Citizen Action, the state’s largest
environmental group, about requesting a meeting with Mr. Burg about
Davis-Besse.
Such a meeting seems unlikely.
When asked
for a comment, Ralph DiNicola, FirstEnergy’s public relations
director, suggested it was an Ohio Citizen Action publicity stunt.
The activist group and the utility have been at odds since the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission began investigating a football-shaped
cavity in Davis-Besse’s steel reactor head in March, 2002, the worst
corrosion of its kind in U.S. nuclear history. The government agency
has blamed the problem on management.
"Pete’s not available.
I don’t know why he’d accept an invitation for anything orchestrated
by Ohio Citizen Action. That’s our response," Mr. DiNicola
said.
Paul Ryder, Ohio Citizen Action spokesman, said the
group wanted Three Mile Island residents to meet with Mr. Burg to
help personalize the issue for him. He said Mr. DiNicola "doesn’t
have an argument on the merits" for his response.
For
more information on Davis-Besse, go to
www.toledoblade.com.davisbesse.
