May 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Tom Henry The Blade, Toledo, Ohio



The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday released internal records that show one of its senior employees filed a pair of complaints questioning the agency's own diligence in obtaining Davis-Besse documents from FirstEnergy Corp. in 2005 and 2007.

Those records also show the employee, Jim Gavula, was later told by NRC brass that the agency -- highly critical of FirstEnergy in the past -- believes it did everything within its power to get more cooperation.

Mr. Gavula, an NRC employee for 24 years who now helps the agency review technical documents, filed the complaints as a senior reactor inspector in 2006 and 2008. Such records, often kept secret, were authorized by Mr. Gavula to be made public.

He told The Blade yesterday he still questions if FirstEnergy has learned its lesson for withholding vital information about the plant's operating status in the fall of 2001, when government regulators at the NRC's headquarters nearly executed a rare shutdown order because they thought the plant might have been operating in a dangerous condition.

 Their fears were confirmed when an inspection showed Davis-Besse's old reactor head had been put back into service in bad shape in 2000, so weak that it nearly burst apart in early 2002 because of acid that had eaten away most of its steel. That kept the plant offline until 2004, its longest outage.

Federal laboratory tests showed the plant was weeks, if that, from a rupture that would have allowed radioactive steam to form in containment for the first time since half of Three Mile Island Unit 2's reactor core melted in 1979.

Inspectors also learned that the plant's emergency backup system might not have worked because it was prone to clogging.

The 2002 event, now seen as one of the most significant in nuclear history, led to nationwide reform and a record $33.5 million in fines against FirstEnergy, of which $28 million resulted from a two-year criminal investigation and $5.5 million was imposed by the NRC in civil penalties for inaccurate or incomplete information.

In his 2006 complaint, Mr. Gavula questioned whether the NRC had let FirstEnergy off the hook for a Sept. 14, 2005, reply the utility gave to the civil infractions, issued months earlier.

The utility declined to elaborate why it took issue with one of the NRC's assertions, saying only that it felt it had explained itself adequately in prior documents.

Mr. Gavula claimed it didn't. He said in his complaint he believed FirstEnergy sidestepped the question because of what might be interpreted by federal prosecutors as willful behavior while indictments were being contemplated. The NRC told Mr. Gavula that was his opinion, not a fact.

In his 2008 complaint, Mr. Gavula questioned if the NRC was aggressive enough in its pursuit of a 661-page report by Exponent Failure Analysis Association, of Menlo Park, Calif., and Altran Solutions Corp., of Boston.

That report claimed the near-rupture of Davis-Besse's old reactor head in 2002 might have been a fluke.

NRC spokesman Viktoria Mitlyng said the agency remains uneasy about the second-hand nature of how it learned about that report. "They should have had enough sensitivity to understand the implications," she said.

The agency ultimately decided it was not empowered to do more than issue an order requiring better training.

It was a fine line: FirstEnergy did not break any laws, yet it failed to meet the NRC's expectations, according to Ms. Mitlyng.

"We call it 'regulatory sensitivity.' We expect utilities to be forthcoming with their information," she said.

Mr. Gavula said he called for the NRC to review its own actions because he remains concerned that FirstEnergy hasn't taken enough steps to become more forthcoming with its information.

"I brought them up for a specific reason and that still exists in my mind," Mr. Gavula said.

The decisions were handed down in May, 2007, and December, 2009, respectively, by former NRC Executive Director of Operations Luis Reyes and his successor, R.W. Borchardt.

Todd Schneider, FirstEnergy spokesman, said the utility had no comment and considers Mr. Gavula's complaints an internal matter within the NRC.

Contact Tom Henry at:

thenry@theblade.com

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