The list of potential safety problems at the troubled Davis-Besse nuclear power plant has been whittled to 26 ``potentially significant'' issues, FirstEnergy Corp. said Monday.

Those remaining issues should be resolved before February without the need to significantly redesign the plant or delay its anticipated restart by April, the company said.

The remaining unanswered questions came about as part of new, higher standards adopted at Davis-Besse, company spokesman Todd Schneider said.

``We have high confidence in the design of our systems,'' Schneider said. ``These reviews are built into our schedule. This should not impact our schedule.''

A third of the 26 safety issues have already been satisfactorily resolved, FirstEnergy officials told members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday. Officials of the Akron utility were at the NRC's regional office in Lisle, Ill., to update NRC members on theDavis-Besse safety systems.

The 883-megawatt plant, in Oak Harbor on the Lake Erie shore, has been shut down since February because boric acid had severely pitted the reactor's vessel head.

The 26 safety issues are what's left after a review of 1,200 reports on the plant's condition, FirstEnergy officials said. They did not specify the 26.

``We think the overall material condition of the plant is quite good,'' said Lew Myers, chief operating officer forFirstEnergy's nuclear operating company subsidiary that operates Davis-Besse. ``We haven't found anything yet that's caused us to go out and say we have to redesign a system.''

FirstEnergy needs to resolve all 26 issues before the plant will be allowed to restart, said NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng.