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Local
Companies | Article published October 31, 2002
DAVIS-BESSE
Nuclear
plants told to give up more data
NRC
plans directive with tougher code
By
TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF
WRITER
OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Dissatisfied with the
response from the nation's 68 other pressurized-water nuclear plants
about potential corrosion damage like that which shut down the
Davis-Besse plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will issue
a directive next week demanding they give more detailed
information.
The pending directive will affect two-thirds of
America's 103 nuclear power plants. The other 34 plants, including
Detroit Edison Co.'s Fermi II plant in Monroe County, have
boiling-water reactors.
Pressurized-water reactors are the focus
of the directive because - unlike boiling-water reactors - boron is
added to help operators keep the nuclear reaction under
control.
Leaks that went undetected for years around some 69
nozzle openings atop Davis-Besse's 80-ton reactor lid allowed boric
acid to escape onto the lid, eventually eating a 7-inch long by
6-inch wide hole through six inches of carbon steel. The leak
occurred much the same way pop sometimes escapes out of the straw
hole in a plastic drink cup lid, only with far more serious
consequences.
Only a thin layer of stainless steel about a
quarter-inch thick prevented radioactive steam from bursting out of
the pressurized reactor into the concrete containment building - the
public's last line of protection.
Victor Dricks, an NRC
spokesman, said that the agency has enough information to stand
behind its assertion that no other plant has a rust problem that
rivals the one at Davis-Besse.
However, the NRC will tell
utilities in its directive that it believes a comprehensive boric
acid corrosion control program is needed that would exceed American
Society of Mechanical Engineers code requirements under which plants
now operate.
Asked by The Blade whether the NRC believes the
codes are now insufficient to deal with the corrosion problem
discovered at Davis-Besse, Mr. Dricks declined comment.
The
NRC has known of the corrosive side-effects of boric acid since at
least 1988, prompting nationwide warnings in the past. The agency
has accused FirstEnergy of not heeding those warnings and
compromising safety.
Days after the corrosion problem at
Davis-Besse was revealed, the NRC required all 68 other plants with
pressurized-water reactors to provide status reports on their own
boric acid corrosion-control programs. Such programs are not limited
to reactor heads.
The initial responses convinced the NRC
there is not another problem of Davis-Besse's magnitude, but
technical follow-up information was largely lacking, Mr. Dricks
said.
Earlier this month, an NRC panel called the "Lessons
Learned Task Force" issued a 96-page report that said the agency's
oversight at Davis-Besse has been lax and that regulators
historically have been too quick to accept industry positions on
matters such as boric acid corrosion.
Mr. Dricks yesterday
would not comment about specific points raised by that task force.
But he acknowledged its overall findings - plus a deeper
understanding of Davis-Besse's problems - led to the upcoming
directive.
Paul Gunter, spokesman for a national citizens
group called the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said
Davis-Besse has magnified the "underlying gullibility of the NRC to
accept industry assumptions."
He said FirstEnergy's admission
that it turned over inspection records that were incomplete and
inaccurate "shook" the NRC. "The Davis-Besse event undermined the
agency confidence in industry reporting," Mr. Gunter
said.
Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the nuclear industry's
chief lobbying group, the Nuclear Energy Institute, said Davis-Besse
is an "extreme example of an issue that the industry has given
attention to for a long time."
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