FirstEnergy eyes Davis-Besse plant restart soon

SAN FRANCISCO - - Utility FirstEnergy Corp. said on Tuesday it is wrapping up repair work at its troubled Davis-Besse nuclear power plant and will ask nuclear regulators soon to approve a much-delayed restart.

"We expect to have everything in place to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to restart in several weeks," said Todd Schneider, a spokesman for the Akron, Ohio-based utility.

He would not be more specific about the timetable. Jan Strasma, a spokesman for the NRC, said a meeting to explore a restart for Davis-Besse may come "sometime after the middle of January."

The NRC and FirstEnergy are scheduled to meet Jan. 13 for a regular monthly review. The 925 megawatt Davis-Besse plant, near Oak Harbor, Ohio, was shut for extensive repairs in February 2002 when it was discovered that boric acid had eaten several holes nearly all the way through the rector vessel's carbon steel lid.

FirstEnergy has done extensive work to repair the plant and to get it ready for a restart, but the utility has repeatedly missed targets for a start-up. Through Sept. 30, the utility had spent $532 million on repairs and replacement power to close the supply gap forced by the shutdown.

An NRC panel tracking the work met with FirstEnergy officials recently in Ohio to review the utility's actions to improve safety and operators' performance in the plant control room.

Earlier inspections had found that certain work plans were inadequate, operators were not aware of the status of plant equipment, work controls appeared disorganized, and operators were not following procedures.

FirstEnergy's Schneider said the utility briefed the NRC panel on work to make officers, managers and employees more aware of the importance of the "safety culture" at Davis-Besse, and also outlined improvements for plant operators.

"Davis-Besse's current safety culture would support a restart of the plant," Schneider said.

The NRC's Strasma said the NRC will conduct additional inspections at the plant in early January.

"There were no surprises from FirstEnergy. What we need to do now is look at the implementation of what they told us they would do about safety culture and operating performance," Strasma said.

FirstEnergy is now preparing the plant for restart and expects to reach "mode 3" soon, Schneider said. Mode 3 is a step in the process toward beginning fission in the reactor. NRC inspectors are observing the process 24 hours a day and "have no significant operations issues with the plant operators," Strasma said.