|
|
Local
Companies | Article published December 11, 2002
Reactor repair progress reported
Updates on Besse attract hundreds
By TOM
HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
PORT CLINTON - Ten months into a shutdown that
was to last only a month, FirstEnergy Corp. yesterday claimed its
beleaguered Davis-Besse nuclear plant has finally turned the corner
and, for the first time, is being repaired faster than problems are
being identified.
During a pair of monthly meetings here with
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s oversight panel, company
officials said they are upbeat about the plant. One official showed
a number of bar charts and other graphics depicting how work is
outpacing task assignments.
Held for the first time at Camp
Perry, an old military complex off State Rt. 2 about halfway between
Davis-Besse and Port Clinton, the evening session drew a
standing-room-only crowd of nearly 300 people. It was one of the
most heavily attended sessions since the plant was shut down for
refueling Feb. 16, three weeks before the nation’s worst
reactor-head corrosion was found there March 6.
The daytime
meeting drew 150 people.
The meetings were the first open to
the public since H. Peter Burg, FirstEnergy’s chairman and chief
executive officer, hinted last Wednesday at a possible sale or
shutdown of Davis-Besse.
While speaking to industry analysts
during an annual conference, Mr. Burg said he "will not let
[Davis-Besse] become a black hole for FirstEnergy" by allowing
delays and costs to escalate well into 2003.
Days earlier,
FirstEnergy suddenly trimmed its 1,300-contractor workforce at
Davis-Besse by 380 jobs, while denying the move had nothing to do
with financial pressures.
Yesterday’s meetings yielded few
surprises.
Randy Fast, plant manager, said inspections to
date show the only major system in the containment building that was
damaged by airborne boric acid was that building’s air system,
alleviating fears of widespread corrosion.
The NRC said in
April the company blew its chance to detect the reactor-head problem
early by failing to pick up on the telltale sign of airborne rust.
For months, FirstEnergy was replacing air filters in the containment
building every other day because so much rust was in the air,
officials have said.
Thirty-six coolers and a number of
motors have been installed. The air system is an important
climate-control device while the plant is in normal operating mode,
and would serve an important role in the event of an emergency, Mr.
Fast said.
Yesterday’s optimism was coupled with
acknowledgements about safety issues by some of Davis-Besse’s
biggest boosters: Ottawa County Administrator Jere Witt, county
commissioners President Carl Koebel, and former state Rep. Darrell
Opfer (D., Oak Harbor), a long-time county commissioner. The trio
reiterated their support for the plant and highlighted its role as
an employer and tax base. "Mistakes certainly were made, but a lot
of good things have happened because of Davis-Besse," Mr. Witt
said.
Mr. Koebel, who defended the plant vehemently when the
problem was first revealed, admitted yesterday he lost some
confidence in FirstEnergy but is gaining it back. "What do we get if
we don’t restart Davis-Besse? We get a mortar-and-brick building
filled with radioactivity, and that’s no good for anyone," he
said.
Mr. Opfer said Ottawa is one of the only counties in
Ohio outside of Appalachia that the state considers "a labor surplus
county." It cannot afford to lose more jobs, he said.
Jack
Grobe, NRC oversight panel chairman, said "no show-stoppers" are
keeping Davis-Besse from restarting once engineering and
human-performance issues have been resolved. The company’s projected
timetable for a restart is mid to late February.
Bill Dean,
vice chairman of the NRC panel, reminded the company it has a long
way to go in terms of convincing the regulator that employees are no
longer reluctant to come forward with their concerns.
Mr.
Grobe admitted the NRC’s own credibility has taken a blow. The
agency conceded in its "Lessons Learned" task force report that it
needs to take partial responsibility for what happened. Its Office
of Inspector General is expected to release a separate finding this
month of the NRC’s role.
"Restart is not going to start next
month, but steady progress is being made," Mr. Grobe said.
| More articles on this subject » |
|
|
| AP Wall Street News » |
|
| Index |
Last |
Change |
|
| Dow |
8574.26 |
+100.85 |
|
| Nasdaq |
1390.76 |
+23.62 |
|
| S&P 500 |
904.45 |
+12.45 |
|
|
| Quick Quotes
|
|
| |
 |
| |
|
