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Editorials |
Article published Monday, December 23, 2002
The questions endure
The fallout from the near-disaster at the
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant 25 miles east of Toledo
continues.
A top-level internal panel that advises the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission has urged it to adopt 95 percent of
the recommendations in a retrospective report that gave the NRC’s
negligence - in particular its failure to inspect Davis Besse - a
role in the scary episode.
FirstEnergy Corp., owner of the
nuclear power plant, and the entire nuclear power industry took a
drubbing as well.
Among other things, FirstEnergy ignored
basic safety maintenance even as it was pressuring the NRC to raise
its production capacity. And the industry continuously, and
unfortunately, successfully, leans on Congress to relieve it of
tough NRC supervision.
Countless safety lapses - including,
because of budget cuts, fewer NRC inspections - over a decade by all
three set northwest Ohio up for a near-disastrous nuclear
accident.
The task force’s conclusions parallel those of the
Union of Concerned Scientists and they document what the UCS’s David
Lochbaum has called the "reckless complacency" of all
involved.
It seemed to result from a decline in a culture of
safety at these potentially dangerous installations, and
congressional sniping at the NRC, including budget cuts on money
that underwrote inspections, for the sake of placating industry
political supporters.
The details from the "Lessons Learned
Task Force," were laid out at a meeting in Rockville, Md., of the
NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, at which an NRC
representative spoke of positive changes in safety attitude at both
FirstEnergy and Davis-Besse. We hope he is sincere that this wasn’t
just an exercise in commission-industry coziness.
A final
decision on implementation isn’t scheduled until next year. What’s
the reason for waiting? And who will be assuring Congress and the
public that the worst reactor-head corrosion ever seen in the United
States doesn’t happen again?
Ohioans, especially in this
region, and all Americans living near a nuclear power generator, are
entitled to know.
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