Four Ohio Congress members
want study of Davis-Besse repowering
For immediate release:
October 7, 2002
Contact:
Amy Ryder (216) 861-5200, (216) 577-8317 cell
Beatrice Miringu (419) 255-6655
CLEVELAND -- U.S. Representatives Dennis Kucinich, Marcy Kaptur, Sherrod Brown and Stephanie Tubbs Jones today asked FirstEnergy Corp to investigate the possibility of repowering Davis-Besse with an alternative source of fuel. The four representatives issued a joint statement:
'In the interest of protecting public safety and a strong future for FirstEnergy, I encourage FirstEnergy to immediately convene a task force of engineering and financial specialists from inside and outside the company to determine the feasibility of repowering Davis-Besse with an alternative source of fuel.
'Careful examination of the repowering option would benefit FirstEnergy consumers, shareholders and workers.
'Repowering is the process in which a utility reuses certain parts of a nuclear power plant to generate electricity with another source of fuel. This process has been done at the Ft. St. Vrain plant in Platteville, Colorado; the Midland Cogeneration Venture in Midland, Michigan; the Zimmer plant near Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Pathfinder plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Given the success of these plants, repowering is an opportunity worth examining.'
On September 30, Amy Ryder, Cleveland Director of Ohio Citizen Action, sent a letter to FirstEnergy CEO H. Peter Burg asking him to consider the option of repowering by convening a task force of engineers and financial experts.
'Given the age of the Davis-Besse reactor and its embrittled condition from corrosion, repowering is an obvious option to explore,' said Ryder.
There are no examples of repowering a partially constructed or operating fossil fuel plant into a nuclear plant.
These four members of Congress represent citizens along Lake Erie's shoreline all the way from from the Michigan border to Euclid, Ohio, including northern Ohio's three major cities of Toledo, Cleveland and Akron.
Ohio Citizen Action is the state’s largest environmental organization, with 100,000 dues-paying members.
