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Local
Companies | Article published October 22, 2002
Citizens’ appeal rejected by NRC
Davis-Besse review sought
OAK HARBOR, Ohio - The government’s denial of a
request to have an independent, third-party team of experts brought
in to review the nation’s worst reactor-head problem was formally
recorded in Washington yesterday.
The unprecedented corrosion
revealed at FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant in early
March prompted 15 citizen groups to petition the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for the outside review, a request which is
rarely granted.
The legal filing was submitted April 24 at
the NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md. The decision to reject it
was written Tuesday by Sam Collins, NRC nuclear reactor regulation
director, and published in the Federal Register
yesterday.
Mr. Collins is the senior-level NRC official who
last fall overrode a staff recommendation to shut down Davis-Besse
by Dec. 31, because of fears cited over cracked reactor-head
nozzles. Mr. Collins allowed FirstEnergy to keep operating until
Feb. 16, six weeks later than his staff recommendation but six weeks
earlier than the utility’s originally planned refueling
outage.
Two activists involved with the petition - Paul
Gunter, of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in
Washington, and Terry Lodge, of the Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy
- said they were disappointed by the NRC’s decision, but not
surprised.
Viktoria Mitlyng, NRC spokeswoman, said the
request was denied because issues that were raised are being
addressed by NRC panels.
Richard Wilkins, FirstEnergy
spokesman, agreed. "Everything the NRC is finding is being discussed
openly. There’s certainly adequate scrutiny," he said.
The
request had garnered support from U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.,
Cleveland) and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo). Mr. Kucinich has
scheduled a congressional field hearing for 10 a.m. Thursday at
Cleveland City Hall to discuss Davis-Besse’s rust problem. The event
is open to the public.
The corrosion has been traced to leaky
reactor-head nozzles that were not fixed, allowing boric acid to
escape and burn through all but a thin liner of stainless steel in
one part of the lid.
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