OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Now holding steady at a blistering 535 degrees and an impressive 2,155 pounds per square inch of pressure, Davis-Besse s reactor is back at the upper limits of where it s allowed to be just prior to going nuclear again.

All that FirstEnergy Corp. is waiting for is approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which company officials hope is imminent.

Think of an automobile that s running, warm, ready to go, but engaged in park. FirstEnergy s request to start pulling boron-filled control rods out of Davis-Besse s reactor is akin to waiting for the OK to put the idling vehicle in drive. Once those rods are pulled, Davis-Besse s nuclear fission process begins again for the first time since Feb. 16, 2002.

“It s up to the NRC, but we know we re very close,” Gary Leidich, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. president, beamed yesterday as he told a roomful of reporters how proud he is of employee efforts to overcome Davis-Besse s stigma as one of the nation s most troubled plants.

Both FirstEnergy and the NRC have been the subject of numerous investigations since a series of admittedly poor management decisions and oversight lapses allowed Davis-Besse s old reactor head to become the most degraded in U.S. nuclear history, putting northern Ohio on the brink of a potentially unprecedented nuclear accident.

A pineapple-shaped cavity was found on March 6, 2002 in the six-inch-thick lid, where acid that had leaked from the reactor had burned through all metal except a liner as thin as a pencil eraser.

A federal grand jury inquiry into possible criminal activity is still in progress.

The utility yesterday showed off the reactor s new head and other improvements.

It was the first time the media were allowed behind secured areas since Aug. 27, 2001, when reporters were invited to join U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio) on the former Ohio governor s first-ever tour of Davis-Besse.

Mr. Voinovich had requested the tour to announce that he would cosponsor congressional legislation designed to help jump-start the sluggish nuclear industry. Unbeknownst to him, Davis-Besse was six months away from dealing the industry one of its greatest embarrassments.

In the two years since the shutdown, Davis-Besse s materials, design, and workplace atmosphere have raised questions throughout the nation and even abroad. As NRC Chairman Nils Diaz said Thursday, “Davis-Besse was not an accident, but it was close enough to an accident that it needed our focused attention.”

More than 20 journalists were on site for six hours yesterday. It was by far the largest and most comprehensive tour for the media since FirstEnergy - the nation s fourth-largest investor-owned utility - was created in the fall of 1997 as a result of the merger between Toledo Edison Co. s former parent, Centerior Energy Corp., and Ohio Edison Co. Toledo Edison, the plant s original owner, is now a FirstEnergy subsidiary.

Davis-Besse has been here before: It sat idle 564 consecutive days between June 9, 1985, and Christmas Day, 1986, after a series of pumps and valves failed, causing a loss of coolant water to the plant s reactor core.

At the time, the NRC described that event as the nation s worst since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979. No new applications for nuclear plants have been submitted since the Three Mile Island accident, despite exponential growth in America s energy demands.

While FirstEnergy remains eager for restart, NRC officials said they are seeking “reasonable assurance” that the company never lets its guard down again. FirstEnergy on Thursday agreed to two conditions for restart, one of which compels it to keep bringing in outside experts to assess the plant s safety for at least five years. The company also vows to have Davis-Besse s reactor head inspected more thoroughly.

“Davis-Besse was a significant event - not for public health and safety but certainly for our regulatory process,” the NRC s Jim Dyer said. Just before shutdown, he was the agency s Midwest regional administrator in charge of overseeing Davis-Besse. Mr. Dyer has since been promoted to headquarters as the agency s reactor regulation director.

For earlier stories on Davis-Besse, go to www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse

First Published February 28, 2004, 2:29 p.m.