Davis-Besse Nuclear Plant Told
to Tighten Safety Measures

March 23, 2004

The United States government ordered an Ohio utility company to take stricter safety measures at its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, which has been shut down for the past two years. The plant is located next to Lake Erie, about 20 miles east of Toledo, Ohio.

FirstEnergy, the plant's owner and operator, says it will comply with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission order and hopes to soon restart the reactor.

The company has spent more than $500 million to correct massive safety problems that were found after the plant shut for refueling in February 2002. A large hole was detected in the reactor head, and numerous management problems were found at the facility.

NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlying called the agency's order, which will modify FirstEnergy's operating license, "a very strong action."

The order requires the utility to hire outside consultants to assess operations and the safety culture at Davis-Besse by the end of this year and during each of the next five years.

FirstEnergy was also ordered to examine the reactor head approximately every 12 months.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear physicist and safety watchdog who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the NRC's actions are "a prudent step" but only "a halfway measure." The actions don't include periodic surveys of the NRC's own safety culture, "which is worse than that at Davis-Besse," he said.

Lochbaum has called repeatedly for the NRC to fix its own oversight problems, which were pointed out two years ago by an agency task force looking into what occurred at Davis-Besse.

The NRC says it has corrected some of the problems, but a decision on restarting Davis-Bese can be made before all are addressed.

Paul Ryder of Ohio Citizen Action, which represents about 100,000 consumers, says the NRC "has learned nothing," if it thinks the latest order is going to make a difference.

"Davis-Besse is still a dangerous place to split atoms," he said.

FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider says the utility has made major safety improvements and is confident Davis-Besse can operate safely. "Our goal is to continue to make improvements."

The utility employs about 800 workers at the facility.