12/11/02

Port Clinton- In an orchestrated show of support for the Davis-Besse nuclear plant, Ottawa County business and elected officials - and dozens of citizens and plant employees - yesterday urged federal regulators to recognize the progress the troubled facility has made and allow it to restart soon.

But members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel overseeing the idled plant's rehabilitation said much work remains to be done and that it is up to Davis-Besse management to prove it can safely operate the reactor.

"We don't have the keys to the plant - Lew Myers has the keys," said NRC oversight chairman Jack Grobe, referring to the FirstEnergy Corp. nuclear division executive who is leading the $400 million repair and rehabilitation effort at Davis-Besse. A rust hole that pierced the reactor's thick steel lid threatened a major nuclear accident there.

"We're eight or nine months along, and we've seen steady progress over the last several months," Grobe said. "But restart is not going to be next month."

The turnout of more than 120 citizens and Davis-Besse workers last night for the monthly NRC meeting at Camp Perry, a military complex east of Davis-Besse on Lake Erie, was due in part to the work of Ottawa County Development Director Darrell Opfer.

Opfer stressed that Davis-Besse officials played no part in the show of public support. The plant's management did encourage employees to attend the meeting, according to one worker. Opfer reminded Grobe and his NRC colleagues that the power plant is the county's largest employer and that the taxes it pays keep local government afloat.

And Ottawa County Administrator Jere Witt, a member of the FirstEnergy restart oversight group, also urged a timely restart, saying the company is going "above and beyond" minimum federal standards.

FirstEnergy's top executives have told financial analysts they believe the 925-megawatt reactor can be restarted by March.

But William Dean, the NRC panel's vice chair, said the ongoing inspections, testing and repair work at Davis-Besse will last at least through March, and that the NRC will have to verify the adequacy of the work. Grobe said the plant has reached a milestone of sorts, where its resolution of problems has begun to outpace its discovery of them. However, "the licensee's [restart] schedule is not our business," he said.

A major concern of the oversight committee is whether Davis-Besse's management has remade itself and sufficiently changed the attitudes of plant personnel to be able to operate safely over the long run.

"It wasn't a hardware issue that caused the [reactor lid] to corrode over four to six years," Grobe said. "The indicators were clear. It was the safety culture of the plant that caused that to happen."

An audience member raised a similar concern, asking how the NRC could be sure that FirstEnergy would properly assess recently discovered rust stains on the bottom of the reactor, which may indicate that there are leaks there as well as on the lid.

Bob Schrauder, FirstEnergy's director of support services, asked if he could respond. "I'll make sure we do," Schrauder said, promising to share all information with the public and the NRC.

His answer drew sustained applause.