FirstEnergy opens emergency operations facility near Davis-Besse

Ray Lieb, left, site vice president of Davis-Besse, and Fred Petersen, right, of Ottawa County EMA director, in the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station's new Emergency Operations Facility.

LINDSEY, Ohio -- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Corp. ceremonially opened a new Emergency Operations Facility for the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant today with a ribbon-cutting.

The $6 million, 12,000-square-foot building -- next door to the Toledo Edison Lindsey Service Center and just south of this Sandusky County village -- allows company and public-agency officials to monitor plant operations during any emergencies that might arise and communicate with each other, utility officials said.

The facility "plays a critical role in protecting the health and safety of the public by supporting timely, efficient communications with emergency responders in the event of an urgent situation at the plant," said Ray Lieb, FENOC's site vice president at Davis-Besse.

Located 15.4 miles from Davis-Besse, the facility fulfills a Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirement that nuclear-plant operators establish emergency-management capability off-site -- at least 10 miles away, but no farther than 25 miles -- to cover situations in which the plant itself is made inaccessible by any of several factors.

Besides the possibility of a radiological accident, such factors could include natural disasters like flooding or tornado damage, or a terrorist attack, said Jennifer Young, a FirstEnergy spokesman.

The Emergency Operations Facility does not have the ability to control plant operations remotely, but has direct communication with Davis-Besse that includes links to its operating systems data. It replaces a similar, but smaller and less advanced, emergency center at the plant site.