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analysis
NRC's Mistake at Davis Besse
"After considerable deliberation and increased management attention, it is the staff's judgement that sufficient information is available to justify operation of the Davis-Besse facility until February 16, 2002."
With these words, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff reported a compromise with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company regarding the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Toledo, Ohio. This decision reversed an earlier determination, reached after considerably more deliberation, by the NRC staff that numerous safety regulation violations at Davis-Besse created a potentially hazardous condition. That determination prompted the NRC to prepare an Order requiring the reactor to be shut down by December 31, 2001, to inspect control rod drive mechanism (CRDM)nozzles for cracks — cracks that had already been found at every other nuclear plant like Davis-Besse in the United States. FirstEnergy resisted the Order, claiming that it could safely operate until its scheduled refueling outage at the end of March 2002. The NRC shelved the Order and safety concerns built upon the studied judgement of its staff and allowed Davis-Besse to operate until its rescheduled outage date of February 16, 2002.
To read a detailed account and analysis of the situation by UCS Nuclear Safety Engineer David Lochbaum and Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Watchdog Project, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, click here. |
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© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 08/11/05 |
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