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Do it right
There is only one way
for FirstEnergy Corp. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
redeem themselves for their egregious errors in judgment that
allowed the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to operate as long
as it did with a dangerously corroded reactor head. The unit
should not be restarted until the regulatory agency is certain
beyond the shadow of a doubt that any and all structural,
mechanical and procedural problems at Davis-Besse have been
addressed and the safe operation of the plant has been
assured.
The preceding statement should go without saying, but is
necessary given the potentially disastrous series of events
that led to Davis-Besse's shutdown last February. One would
think the system of safety checks in place at a nuclear plant
would have led someone from FirstEnergy or the federal agency
to respond decisively to the warning signs of corrosion in the
reactor head before boric acid in leaking coolant had eaten a
deep hole in the lid and compromised its structural integrity.
But what's truly mind-boggling is the NRC's decision last fall
to let the plant keep operating through most of the winter
despite suspicions by its staff that the reactor's lid had
cracks.
The General Accounting Office, at the request of U.S. Rep.
Dennis Kucinich, plans to conduct an investigation into the
NRC's handling of the Davis-Besse case, and well it should.
Sometimes even a watchdog needs a watchdog, and a probe by the
watchdog of Congress, the GAO, into how and how well the NRC
did its job at Davis-Besse could improve the latter watchdog's
oversight of the nuclear power industry.
As for FirstEnergy, whatever fines the NRC dishes out
related to its findings that Davis-Besse officials generated
inaccurate and incomplete reports about the reactor's
condition likely will pale in comparison to the hundreds of
millions of dollars the company is shelling out to repair the
plant and to buy replacement power. The former speaker of the
U.S. House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn, once said, "There
is no education in the second kick of a mule." FirstEnergy
shareholders should hope company managers have learned from
the first kick and won't take a shortsighted approach to
dealing with problems in the future.
Wine n' gold
Nothing will bring basketball fans back into the seats at
Gund Arena faster than winning, but it still is good that the
Cleveland Cavaliers have decided to go retro by bringing back
what the organization describes as an updated version of the
team's original wine and gold colors when the 2003-2004 season
rolls around. Now the franchise needs to stick with a plan for
rebuilding the team's fortunes so that players and fans can be
proud to wear those new uniforms.
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