The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FirstEnergy Corp. agree that long cracks in the outer containment shell of the Davis-Besse power plant likely formed during the Blizzard of 1978. But new information reveals that some cracks formed even earlier, raising new questions for regulators to examine.
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Last month, FirstEnergy disclosed that there were some cracks in the structure nearly 18 months before the blizzard. That information was buried in archives generated by the Oak Harbor plant's original owner, Toledo Edison.
The NRC, at the request of the Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy group, says it will examine whether the utility gave inaccurate or incomplete information. A similar offense led to $33.5 million in civil and criminal fines against First Energy within the past decade.
Most of those penalties came after federal prosecutors convinced a grand jury that FirstEnergy engaged in a pattern of deceit to cover up problems with Davis-Besse's original reactor head in 2001. Conditions of the plant's restart in 2004 included greater transparency.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat, has accused FirstEnergy of misconduct. He wants the federal Securities and Exchange Commission to examine evidence that, he says, shows FirstEnergy has downplayed Davis-Besse's problems to protect the value of company stock.
A FirstEnergy spokesman said the utility stands by its actions. The utility insists it is not the same company that a former chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes unit said had shown "brazen arrogance" and "breached the public trust" when it gave the NRC selective information in 2001. The NRC uses that debacle to remind commission employees what can happen when regulators let their guard down.
Ohioans learned last fall that FirstEnergy had allowed Davis-Besse's containment shield to stand along the western Lake Erie shoreline for nearly four decades without weather sealant, although other buildings at the plant have it. Sealant was not required when the plant was built in the 1970s, but FirstEnergy properly pledges to apply it this summer.
The 1976 cracks in the shield may be unrelated to the cracks found last fall. That's up to NRC engineers to decide. FirstEnergy plans to submit a formal response to the NRC this week. Clearly, it has a bit more explaining to do.
First Published June 23, 2012, 4:00 a.m.
