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NRC and UCS take differing views on DB decision-makiing
Paul Blanch wrote:
> Davis-Besse decision revisited before NRC
>
> 10/30/02
>
> John Funk, Stephen Koff and John Mangels
> Plain Dealer Reporters
>
> Washington - The nuclear industry is hearing two conflicting takes on
> the government's controversial decision last fall to allow the
> Davis-Besse power plant to continue operating when regulators strongly
> suspected that the reactor's lid was cracked and leaking.
>
> On one hand, a top Nuclear Regulatory Commission official yesterday
> gave a detailed presentation in support of the agency's use of a new
> analytical process that focuses attention on areas deemed to have the
> most risk while eliminating unnecessary regulation.
>
> On the other hand, the NRC's harshest critics say the methodology
> created a "regulatory fiasco" at Davis-Besse.
>
> Using the risk-informed process, "not one person said 'I object' or 'I
> have a technical problem' " at an NRC staff meeting last November to
> hash out the final decision, Brian Sheron, the agency's senior
> licensing and technical official, said yesterday at the NRC's annual
> meeting on nuclear safety research. "It may not be their ideal
> [decision], but they all said it was acceptable . . . from a safety
> standpoint."
>
> The NRC lacked the solid proof its lawyers said was necessary to shut
> down Davis-Besse before owner FirstEnergy Corp. wanted to, Sheron
> said.
>
> And letting the plant run six weeks longer did not significantly
> heighten the risk to the public.
>
> Also, the president of FirstEnergy's nuclear division personally
> assured the agency that the reactor lid had been properly inspected.
>
> The counter view comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
>
> The evidence at Davis-Besse "strongly suggests that the NRC's
> risk-informed sword is razor-sharp on the side that cuts regulatory
> requirements, but is dull as a Nerf knife on the side that imposes
> requirements," said UCS nuclear safety engineer David Lochbaum in
> prepared remarks that are to be delivered today.
>
> "We may not be so lucky as we were this time at Davis-Besse if the NRC
> continues with its 'business-as-usual' swordsmanship," he said. The
> NRC last year asked operators of plants like Davis-Besse to provide
> evidence that their reactors were safe to continue operating. That
> evidence, in the form of visual or instrument-aided inspections of
> reactor lids, could only be obtained when the reactors were shut down.
>
> Officials at Davis-Besse, which was at high risk for cracking and
> leaks because of its operating temperature, wanted to do the
> inspection during a refueling outage in March, three months later than
> the NRC wanted.
>
> The utility brokered a compromise shutdown on Feb. 16. Soon afterward,
> workers found that not only was the lid cracking and leaking but that
> corrosive coolant residue that had accumulated for years atop the lid
> had bored a hole all the way through the 6½-inch-thick steel. Only a
> thin, stainless steel liner prevented a major accident.
>
> The agency prepared a shutdown order as a bluff and also as a backup
> in case FirstEnergy played hardball and wouldn't shut down, said
> Sheron.
>
> "I haven't seen a plant yet that wants an order from the NRC," Sheron
> said. "What it does to their bond and stock rating is a disaster. . .
> . [But] I told my staff we are going to have to back it up with an
> order.
>
> "But our lawyers said if you issue an order you must have an immediate
> safety concern."
>
> And FirstEnergy's nuclear division president, Robert Saunders, had
> assured the agency that inspections of the reactor lid had found no
> signs of leakage, he said. If there were cracks in Davis-Besse's lid,
> Sheron said, the agency's analysts were saying that the likelihood
> they would cause an accident during the additional few weeks
> FirstEnergy wanted to run the plant "can't be measured."
>
> UCS' Lochbaum and other critics maintain that the decision violated
> most if not all of the agency's own safety guidelines for making
> risk-based decisions. Those safety principles say that when utilities
> want to make changes in operating conditions, they must ensure that
> the plant continues to preserve safety margins and protective barriers
> and meets NRC regulations.
>
> "They are not hard-and-fast rules, just guiding principles the staff
> should take into consideration when it has to make a technical
> judgment," Sheron said.
>
> It was only after the rust hole was found in March that the NRC began
> to learn that FirstEnergy had not presented a complete and accurate
> picture of the lid's condition.
>
> "They cleaned their [lid] like my kid cleans his room," Sheron said.
> "If we knew they had 3 to 4 inches of [boric acid] caked on top of the
> head . . . we probably would have re-thought whether we could approve
> anything beyond Dec. 31."
>
> In a separate interview yesterday, NRC Chairman Richard Meserve said
> that he is "comfortable that in the aftermath of the Davis-Besse
> plant, there's been a very thorough examination of reactor vessel
> pressure heads. I am satisfied that the kind of corrosion that was
> found in there is not occurring anywhere else."
>
> To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
>
> mailto:jfunk@plaind.com 216-999-4138
>
> mailto:skoff@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
>
> Paul M. Blanch
>
> 135 Hyde Rd.
>
> West Hartford CT 06117
>
> Pager 800-539-1786
>
>
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