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Re: Norm's New Year Resolution may come true: DB may close
Norm...I hope it does come true...Then you, and the rest of your ridiculous
bleeding heart liberal friends, can spend the rest of your miserable,
useless and uninformed lives in the DARK!!!....
Mitchell W. Davis, RRPT
Health Physicist
915-697-3523
915-349-4824 Cell
radiation@cox.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norman Cohen" <ncohen12@comcast.net>
To: <Know_Nukes@yahoogroups.com>; <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>; "nukenet"
<nukenet@envirolink.org>; "NRC CONCERNS" <nrc_concerns@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 2:28 PM
Subject: Norm's New Year Resolution may come true: DB may close
> I'd say - good riddence to a bad nuke.
> norm
>
> Bill Corcoran wrote:
>
> > Have a safe and thoughtful New Year.
> >
> > Scroll down for today's update.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Bill Corcoran
> >
> > W. R. Corcoran, Ph.D., P.E.
> > Nuclear Safety Review Concepts
> > 21 Broadleaf Circle
> > Windsor, CT 06095-1634
> > 860-285-8779 Fax: 702-993-2408
> > Mission: Saving lives, pain, assets, and careers through thoughtful
inquiry.
> >
> > Check out our e-groups at
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Root_Cause_State_of_the_Practice/
> > where you will find all back issues of "The Firebird Forum" and at
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DBRVH_LTBL/
> > where you will find a dialogue on the Davis-Besse near miss LOCA.,
including photos, polls, files, tables, and links.
> >
> > For a complimentary subscription to our e-newsletter on root cause,
organizational learning, and safety send a message to
firebird.one@alum.MIT.edu
> > Visit our web site at http://pages.prodigy.net/corcoran.nsrc/index.html
> >
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
> >
> > Akron, Ohio-Based FirstEnergy Considers Closing Aging Oak Harbor Nuclear
Plant
> >
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> > Chicago Tribune
> > Dec. 30--OAK HARBOR, Ohio--For most of its 170 years, this little town
on the Portage River lived off the local labors of farming and, later,
manufacturing. When the nuclear power plant was built a few miles from here
in 1978, Oak Harbor, population 2,600, struck the mother lode of prosperity.
> >
> > The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station bankrolled a new high school and
an Olympic-size swimming pool. It provided 1,000 jobs. Today it is the
heartbeat of Oak Harbor and the biggest employer in tourism-oriented Ottawa
County, on Lake Erie's shoreline.
> >
> > Whether it will be for much longer is a matter of growing concern.
> >
> > Plagued by operational troubles for much of its 24 years, the plant was
shut down in February for a routine inspection during which a brick-size,
acid-created hole that had gone undetected for four years was discovered in
the nuclear reactor lid.
> >
> > The owner of Davis-Besse, the Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., hoped to
restart the reactor this month but new problems and unresolved questions
about the plant's safety have delayed that at least until late winter.
> >
> > Anxiety over the future of the plant increased this month when
FirstEnergy Chief Executive Peter Burg, pointing to the $400 million the
company has spent to repair the site, raised the prospect of closing it
permanently.
> >
> > Davis-Besse has become the national focal point of the nuclear power
safety debate, with its problems generating questions about the safety of
many of the nation's older nuclear plants. FirstEnergy and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the government's chief regulator of the industry,
have been criticized for not discovering the hole sooner.
> >
> > Some members of Congress, including Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D) , whose
district includes the plant, have called for an independent investigation of
the Davis-Besse matter. The NRC, which has the final say on whether and when
Davis-Besse can reopen, is conducting a criminal investigation to determine
whether the company deliberately withheld information about the plant's
flaws.
> >
> > Unexpectedly, the NRC's chairman, Richard Meserve, announced this month
that he would resign, more than a year before his term is to expire. Meserve
had come under fire for the agency's handling of Davis-Besse.
> >
> > When Burg told financial analysts in New York that he would not allow
Davis-Besse "to become a black hole for FirstEnergy," the remark sent a
shudder through Oak Harbor, where most residents have a relative or a close
friend who work at the plant, which has retained its staff to make repairs.
> >
> > "When he said that, I kind of went ballistic. It'll kill the economy,"
said Bob Cook, a clerk at the downtown hardware store. "I can't believe
they'll take it and say `We're done.'"
> >
> > Residents in the Oak Harbor area are accustomed to problems at
Davis-Besse, but they remained confident that the company would make things
right. Pictures of the corrosion damage at the reactor, though, and
disclosures that it went on for so long have shaken some of that confidence.
> >
> > Pam Winters, a deputy registrar for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles in
Oak Harbor, said she worries that people will "pass the buck" about problems
at the plant. Winters lives about 2 miles from the plant and said the
discovery of the hole in the reactor lid is breeding skepticism about the
plant's safety.
> >
> > Asked if she believes Davis-Besse can be safe, Winters said, "I don't
know."
> >
> > While FirstEnergy officials say they remain optimistic about fixing the
plant, the uncertainty over what the NRC, Congress and FirstEnergy will do
is unsettling for residents such as Darrell Opfer, a former high school
teacher, state representative and now chief economic development director
for Ottawa County.
> >
> > "The reactor situation has been disquieting. I'm most concerned that
after the safety concerns are addressed that the politics of the anti-
versus pro-nuclear power community would do something to prevent the
restart." Opfer said.
> >
> > Jere Witt, the Ottawa County administrator, said closing Davis-Besse
"would be a major blow to us."
> >
> > "I think there were mistakes made ... but I do not think they were
intentional, and I do not think there was an effort to cover it up," Witt
said.
> >
> > The hole that inspectors discovered in early March was caused by a
buildup of boric acid. The chemical ate through nearly 70 pounds of carbon
steel protecting the reactor.
> >
> > The hole had grown over the years, with the corrosion reaching within
one-eighth of an inch of the reactor. Nuclear industry experts say adequate
safeguards were in place to contain the damage if the acid had reached the
reactor, but the broader and more troublesome issue is why the erosion
escaped detection by the company and the NRC for so long.
> >
> > "I'm not comfortable with the NRC's explanations," said Kaptur. "The
burden of proof is on the NRC and the company, and they have not passed the
threshold of confidence."
> >
> > Ohio Citizen Action, a public interest group, wants the plant to be
closed permanently.
> >
> > "I think FirstEnergy has lost its privilege to run the plant. What
they're doing now is too little, too late," said Amy Ryder, the group's
Cleveland area director.
> >
> > In a 100-page report, the NRC said part of the blame rests with the
agency itself, which had too few inspectors and missed several opportunities
to find the problem.
> >
> > In a recent speech, Meserve said Davis-Besse was a "direct result of a
degraded safety culture" at FirstEnergy. He also said the NRC "must
acknowledge its own shortcomings in connection with the event."
> >
> > Since the release of the report, inspectors have found rust on the
bottom of the nuclear reactor. The extent and cause of that damage will be
determined through tests next month, the NRC and FirstEnergy said.
> >
> > "Every time you turn around now there's something new they discover,"
said Sandy Fillmore, a former Davis-Besse employee who manages a pizza shop.
"I don't think it should be reopened again."
> >
> > Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said the company has made
great progress this month.
> >
> > "We certainly expect to see it returned to safe and reliable service
early next year," Schneider said.
> >
> > He added, though, that costs cannot be dismissed. "You have to make a
business decision."
> >
> > Shirley Reif, who helps her daughter run a fitness shop in Oak Harbor,
said she understands that. People in town have always been divided: In one
camp are those who are skeptical about the safety issues and, in the other,
those who are confident the company will do the right thing.
> >
> > The balancing act goes on, Reif said. "They [FirstEnergy] have put so
much into it and it doesn't seem like they wouldn't reopen it."
> >
> > "But I don't know," Reif added.
> >
> > -----
> >
> > To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
> >
> > (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News.
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > DBRVH_LTBL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
> --
> Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr
Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583 or 609-601-8537; ncohen12@comcast.net
UNPLUG SALEM WEBSITE: http://www.unplugsalem.org/ COALITION FOR PEACE AND
JUSTICE WEBSITE: http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org The Coalition
for Peace and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.
> "First they ignore you; Then they laugh at you; Then they fight you; Then
you win. (Gandhi) "Why walk when you can fly?" (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
>
>
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