OAK HARBOR -- Add another delay to Davis-Besse getting back on line. FirstEnergy hoped the nuclear plant would go online either late this year or early next year. Now it looks like it won't open until late spring 2003.

FirstEnergy says it wants to go above and beyond Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety recommendations.

On Wednesday, members of the NRC talked with people who live near the plant in a public meeting. Safety topped the list of questions.

Resident Tim Dussel asked, "What happened to all of the upper management that was supposedly fired or moved from Davis-Besse? Have they been moved to other power plants, so they can try to blow them up?"  The NRC hopes a newly-released report will answer these kinds of questions.

NRC panel member, Jack Globe said, "We have an ongoing investigation into that to determine whether or not these violations were simply oversights or if in fact they were deliberate violations for some ulterior motive and if they were, they'll be turned over to the dept.

Panel members say older nuclear power plants like Davis-Besse can be repaired safely. But some people in the audience say the NRC isn't doing enough to monitor Davis-Besse.

Updated at 11:45pm Wednesday by ismith@wtol.com