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Regional News
| Article published Friday, December 6, 2002
NRC told to adopt safety provisions in wake of
Davis-Besse
By MICHAEL WOODS
BLADE SCIENCE
EDITOR
ROCKVILLE, Md. - A top-level internal panel has
advised the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accept 95 percent of
the recommendations in a report that heaped blame on the agency for
its mishandling of acid corrosion at the Davis-Besse
plant.
The so-called "Lessons-Learned Task Force" report
concluded that the NRC’s failure to properly inspect Davis-Besse
contributed to the worst reactor-head corrosion ever in the United
States.
FirstEnergy Corp., which owns Davis-Besse, and the
nuclear power industry, shared responsibility with NRC, according to
the task force. Its 96-page report was released in October after a
months-long investigation.
The report documented how
innumerable lapses - by all three parties over a 10-year period -
set the stage for what could have been a catastrophic nuclear
accident 25 miles east of Toledo.
Mr. Howell spoke at a
meeting yesterday of the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards. The 11-member panel of outside experts advises the
commission on technical issues relating to safety of the nation’s
103 nuclear power plants.
Problems at Davis-Besse dominated
the morning session, running more than a half-hour beyond its
allotted time in the tightly scripted agenda. Advisory committee
members peppered commission staff with questions about NRC and
FirstEnergy miscues that underpinned the Davis-Besse
incident.
"How do you measure it, standards or just
judgment?" Dr. George Apostolakis, chairman of the advisory panel,
asked when NRC’s Jack Grobe cited a new safety-consciousness that
seemed to be developing at Davis-Besse. Dr. Apostolakis is professor
of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
Mr. Grobe said the commission has seen a definite
improvement in the "safety culture" at Davis-Besse since the
corrosion was detected in March. He chairs the special watchdog
panel that has been monitoring Davis-Besse.
FirstEnergy, he
indicated, does seem to be placing priority on safe operation of
Davis-Besse, whereas production of electricity seemed to be the No.
1 goal previously.
The senior management’s recommendations on
the report will be handed up to NRC’s top staff official, Dr.
William Travers, executive director for operations. He will make the
final decision early in 2003 on implementing the recommendations,
which included 51 major steps for improving safety at Davis-Besse
and other U.S. nuclear power plants.
Mr. Howell said the task
force recommendations will be assigned a priority ranking and
implemented in order of importance. He assured the advisory panel
that the lessons from Davis-Besse will improve nuclear safety
nationwide.
"We want to reassure the public that NRC is a
strong and competent regulator," added Mr. Grobe.
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