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report questions NRC decisions on Davis Besse
>From the article::
"That finding - that the NRC let FirstEnergy's money concerns drive what
was supposed to be a safety decision - is one of the main conclusions in
a highly critical review by the agency's Office of Inspector General. "
Profits before safety. If it happened at DB, its probably happening at
your friendly neighborhood nuclear plant.
Norm
Report hits NRC decisions on Besse
01/03/03
John Funk and John Mangels
Plain Dealer Reporters
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission had enough evidence to justify
shutting down the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in late 2001 for safety
concerns, but the agency let the reactor keep running largely because it
didn't want to hurt owner FirstEnergy Corp. financially.
That finding - that the NRC let FirstEnergy's money concerns drive what
was supposed to be a safety decision - is one of the main conclusions in
a highly critical review by the agency's Office of Inspector General.
The document, obtained by
The Plain Dealer before its
public release, describes
numerous flaws,
misinterpretations,
inconsistencies and
unsupported conclusions in
how the NRC responded to
FirstEnergy's reluctance to
shut down by Dec. 31, 2001,
to inspect for suspected
cracks and leaks in its
reactor lid.
The agency struck a
compromise with the
company, allowing the
Toledo-area plant to continue making electricity until Feb. 16.
Three weeks later, inspection workers found not only cracks, but a
pineapple-size rust hole that breached the thick steel lid, caused by
the
corrosive leaking coolant.
It was the nation's closest brush with a major nuclear accident since
Three Mile Island in 1979.
The inspector general's report singles out the NRC's top reactor safety
official, Sam Collins, for his decision to let FirstEnergy delay the
inspection. It notes Collins had "strong justification" to order that
Davis-Besse cease operating, and that he had a promise from the
company's nuclear division president for a voluntary pre-Dec. 31
shutdown
if the NRC had lingering safety worries.
"The report is an illustration of how the NRC violated the public
trust," said
Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The Cleveland Democrat is a member of a
congressional committee that oversees the agency.
"FirstEnergy and the NRC worked together to put profits above public
safety. It's unacceptable," Kucinich said.
NRC Chairman Richard Meserve insisted yesterday that public safety, not
corporate concerns, had dictated the agency's approval of the inspection
delay.
"It's a nuanced issue," Meserve said of the need to strike a balance
between being a safety-minded regulator and an overly burdensome one.
"Safety in fact is our highest priority. We're fully prepared to issue
[shutdown] orders if we think it's necessary to protect public safety. I
don't
want to necessarily disagree with the inspector general. You're faced
with
a situation where you had some uncertainty about conditions in the
plant."
NRC staff members and managers made the right decision, based on the
information they had at the time, he said. Meserve promised to respond
to
the report's findings within 90 days. Collins could not be reached for
comment.
While the inspector general stopped short of saying the agency made the
wrong decision, the report finds fault with much of the decision-making
process:
The NRC gave undue consideration to its decision's impact on FirstEnergy
and the nuclear industry. The agency's regulations allow its staff to
take
into account the financial costs of any order; however, the Inspector
General concluded that the inspection delay went against the NRC's goal
of making sure reactors like Davis-Besse at high risk for lid cracking
were
quickly checked.
The company wanted to shut down March 31, when it had already
arranged for the people and equipment to do the special inspection as
well
as a planned reactor refueling. To halt production earlier would not
only be
costly but might cause power shortages in northwest Ohio, FirstEnergy
officials told the NRC.
NRC managers and staff members seemed to buy the argument.
"It would clearly be punitive to shut a plant down and they sit there
for a
month waiting to obtain the correct inspection equipment," one senior
manager e-mailed another in a message cited in the report.
The NRC "informally established an unreasonably high burden" of needing
absolute proof of a safety problem to justify issuing a shutdown order.
The
problem with that logic, the report noted, was that the only way to get
such proof was to order a shutdown for inspection.
The agency had enough evidence to conclude that Davis-Besse's lid was
cracked and leaking, the report said. FirstEnergy's own estimates were
that between one and nine metal sleeves on the lid were leaking.
Investigators found that the agency is reluctant to risk a legal battle
over a
shutdown order unless it has a "guaranteed win."
Moreover, an order was unnecessary, because Bob Saunders, president
of FirstEnergy's nuclear division, had promised Collins that Davis-Besse
would shut down without opposition if the NRC determined that it was
necessary.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group whose complaint
about the NRC's Davis-Besse decision launched the inspector general's
investigation, said its findings demonstrate the need for reform at the
agency.
While FirstEnergy has made many management changes in the wake of
the rust hole debacle, the NRC has made none, said the group's David
Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer.
"They need to bring people in from the outside who aren't of the same
mind-set and will bring fresh perspective and don't have baggage," he
said.
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
jfunk@plaind.com, 216-999-4138
jmangels@plaind.com, 216-999-4842
© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
--
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