OAK HARBOR, Ohio - It's not yet clear whether FirstEnergy Corp. has made the changes needed to ensure a safe restart of the Davis-Besse power plant, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official said.

"I believe that this is the basic issue and the root cause and the issue you have to grapple with," Jack Grobe, chairman of a special NRC oversight panel, told FirstEnergy at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The panel's credibility was the focus of a walkout at a Tuesday evening NRC hearing at the same location.

About 25 protesters from a group called Citizens Campaign to Close Davis-Besse walked out after telling the panel that they do not have confidence in its oversight.

The group includes at 50 members from several local environmental and anti-nuclear organizations, according to member Steve Miller of Toledo.

The plant alongside Lake Erie has been shut down since February, when inspectors discovered during routine maintenance that boric acid had corroded a steel cap that covers the reactor vessel.

As a result, the NRC is investigating the safety of reactor vessel heads at 69 pressurized-water reactors across the nation.

At issue before the oversight panel is whether Davis-Besse violated federal safety rules last year when it kept operating while the reactor lid was cracked and leaking.

Grobe said during the afternoon hearing at Oak Harbor High School that boric acid corrosion of the lid was not surprising, based on technical issues known in the industry for years.

FirstEnergy last week confirmed that its nuclear division made mistakes at the plant about 25 miles east of Toledo.

Lew Myers, chief operating officer of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., said that before the corrosion was discovered, there had been communications problems and a feeling of complacency among the Davis-Besse workforce. He said the plant's history of reliable performance made employees hesitant to bring up problems.

"We were tremendously embarrassed by the reactor head issue and the missed opportunities," Myers said.

The company said it's now encouraging workers to discuss problems as soon as they know about them. Myers said FirstEnergy wants to "set the standard of returning Davis-Besse to service in a safe and reliable manner and doing the job right the first time. We have to fix the problem and not try to justify it away."

NRC panel member Jon Johnson, the deputy director of the commission's office of nuclear reactor regulation, toured the plant Tuesday and spoke with employees.

He said FirstEnergy has a lot of work to do to accomplish its safety goals.

"You've got to get the trust back of your employees. They said action speaks louder than words," Johnson said.

FirstEnergy officials said at the hearing that they are waiting for the NRC's permission to begin installing the replacement reactor lid, which has been at Davis-Besse since July 18.

Akron-based FirstEnergy will spend as much as $75 million to replace the reactor lid. It wants to reopen the plant by the end of the year.

FirstEnergy operating companies serve 4.3 electric customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

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First Energy: http://www.firstenergycorp.com/

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/