Three indicted in Ohio nuclear plant case

[struggle4progress]

By CONNIE MABIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

CLEVELAND -- A federal grand jury indicted two former nuclear power plant employees and a contractor Thursday on charges of hiding information about serious damage to a reactor from regulators.

The indictment accuses the trio of misleading regulators in the fall of 2001 into believing that the Davis-Besse plant was safe so federal inspectors would delay visits until the spring of 2002, during a scheduled shutdown for refueling.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors found an acid leak in 2002 that nearly ate through a 6-inch steel cap on the reactor vessel at the plant, which sits along the Lake Erie shore about 30 miles east of Toledo.

Officials said it was the most extensive corrosion ever seen at a U.S. nuclear reactor ...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Nuclear_Plant_Damage.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. These guys are terrorists too...their negligence could cause as much...

...damage as one, and all through their negligence/greed.

PB

[struggle4progress]

2. Three Mile Island investigates incidents of inattentive employees

The company that operates the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said it has investigated five incidents of inattentive employees in the past two years including two reports in December ...

Plant employees are not allowed to be inattentive, an industry term that can mean sleeping ...

.. Three Mile Island Alert, a watchdog group, blamed the incidents on understaffing at the plant and called for an independent investigator to look into the facility's operations.

Three Mile Island, located about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident when a partial meltdown occurred in 1979.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15950852&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6

[Algorem]

3. sorry I totally duped this

Charges filed in acid-leak investigation at nuclear plant
http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1137719651182790.xml&storylist=cleveland

< ...U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Lakewood Democrat and FirstEnergy's harshest critic, commended White's work but said FirstEnergy itself should be held accountable... >


1/20/2006, 1:30 a.m. ET
By CONNIE MABIN
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — The 4-year-old investigation into serious damage to a reactor at a nuclear plant has produced charges against two former employees and a contractor, all of whom are accused of misleading regulators into thinking the damage was less severe...

NRC inspectors found an acid leak in 2002 that nearly ate through a 6-inch steel cap on the reactor vessel at the plant, which sits along the Lake Erie shore about 30 miles east of Toledo...

Siemaszko has said he was wrongly fired. He said managers rejected his requests that the reactor head be cleaned...

FirstEnergy, the nation's fourth-largest investor-owned utility, has 16 power plants and 4.4 million customers in New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.



3 accused of lying about reactor

http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/113774992055330.xml&coll=2

First Energy plea is likely in probe of Davis-Besse

Friday, January 20, 2006
John Funk and Mike Tobin
Plain Dealer Reporters

...The document says the scheme lasted for several months after an August 2001 NRC bulletin warning of cracks and likely leaks at Davis-Besse and similar reactors across the country...

Federal authorities later estimated the reactor lid would have ruptured in as little as 60 days had the corrosion hole not been discovered.

Other investigations revealed that critical safety systems designed to prevent a meltdown of the reactor's core in the event of a rupture had been severely limited by years of poor maintenance and might not have kept radioactive steam and debris from escaping the containment building...

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Lakewood Democrat and FirstEnergy's harshest critic, commended White's work but said FirstEnergy itself should be held accountable...

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

FirstEnergy Corp.: http://www.firstenergycorp.com



Throckmorton (1000+ posts) Fri Jan-20-06 02:28 PM
Response to Original message

1. It is a good idea to read this stuff before posting
This article makes it sound like acid was poured on the reactor head, which is not at all the case.

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation/faqs.html

You just might not live forever.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2053870

[Algorem]

4. FirstEnergy agrees to $28 million fine, saying workers hid damage

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1137770051214600.xml&storylist=cleveland

1/20/2006, 11:35 a.m. ET
By M.R. KROPKO
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — The owner of a nuclear plant agreed to pay $28 million in fines, restitution and community service projects because the company says employees hid serious damage at the Davis-Besse plant, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.

Company and Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigations concluded that the rust hole had been growing for at least four years and that Davis-Besse's managers had ignored the evidence because they were focused on profits rather than safety at the plant, which sits along the Lake Erie shore about 30 miles east of Toledo.

As part of the agreement, FirstEnergy acknowledged that the government can prove that nuclear plant employees "knowingly made false representations to the NRC in the course of attempting to persuade the NRC that Davis-Besse was safe to operate beyond Dec. 31, 2001," a Justice Department statement obtained by The Associated Press said...

Siemaszko said last year that he was wrongly fired and that he had told supervisors the reactor needed to be cleaned. He said managers rejected his requests. He made those comments when he and Geisen were barred by the NRC from working in the nuclear industry for five years...