In March, experts in the nuclear power field will gather in the Washington, D.C. area to confer for three days on nozzle cracks that have surfaced at some power plants -- including the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Ottawa County.

The conference, from March 24 through the 26, will focus on the nickel-based alloy used in the reactor vessel head nozzles that cracked at the Davis-Besse plant and in several others across the United States.

"The discovery of cracks and leakage from the control rod drive housings of several U.S. and foreign reactors has raised this issue to a high level or regulatory concern," read a release from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week.

Cracks on the nozzles located on reactor heads in pressurized water reactors were found prior to those on the Davis-Besse head, but none experienced corrosion as severe as the Carroll Township plant.

The reactor has been off-line there since February, and plant officials say they would like to restart by the end of the first quarter 2003. However, the plant's parent company, FirstEnergy, will have to show an NRC oversight panel that it has fixed all the problems that led to the unprecedented amount of corrosion that ate away a hole in the reactor head.

Meanwhile, the NRC sent out a letter asking all of the nation's 68 pressurized water reactors to show what steps they are taking to find and correct nozzle cracking.

The March conference announcement showed participants will include reactor operators, regulatory officials and researchers to talk about the issues faced with the nozzles as many of the country's reactors get older.

And while FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider said it was too soon to tell if there will be much of a focus on Davis-Besse at the three-day conference, he did say a FirstEnergy representative will likely be there.

Also, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said while the scope of the meeting goes far beyond Davis-Besse, "I'm certain Davis-Besse will be among the items discussed for sure."

The agenda has not yet been set for the conference, but Dricks said there will likely be domestic experts as well as a few from overseas to discuss similar issues discovered in foreign power plants.

Some of the topics of the meetings include analysis of flaw inspection procedures, descriptions of training procedures and use of vessel head mock-ups used for repair purposes and programs that might mitigate cracking, among other things.

Details of the conference will be posted on the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/

Click on Nuclear Reactors, then the Alloy 600 link for more information.

Originally published Monday, December 30, 2002