Ohio's 2 nuclear plants face critics of safety

Mar 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

A little more than a year ago, power-industry officials promoted a new generation of nuclear reactors as a clean source of electricity that wouldn't contribute to climate change.

That was then. Today, as Japan's nuclear crisis grows, so has criticism of the United States' proposed "nuclear renaissance."

The nation's 104 nuclear-power stations, including two in Ohio, face more scrutiny and federal inspections.

Officials with Akron-based FirstEnergy said their Davis-Besse and Perry stations along Lake Erie are safe and secure.

"We will be reviewing our procedures, policies and seismic equipment to ensure that the plants will stay in a safe condition during an earthquake," said Todd Schneider, a FirstEnergy spokesman.

At the same time, officials of Cincinnati-based Duke Energy say they still plan to build Ohio's third plant, near Piketon in southern Ohio.

Critics are quick to bring up a string of safety issues that have plagued the Davis-Besse and Perry plants, and they contend that the crisis in Japan illustrates the danger of nuclear power.

"You cannot plan for every contingency," said Johanna Neumann, a safe-energy advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

In recent years, nuclear-power plants have been praised by some groups as a "green" power option because they emit no carbon dioxide, a key gas linked to climate change.

In 2007, when the No. 1 reactor at Browns Ferry near Athens, Ala., began producing electricity again after a 22-year shutdown, it was the first reactor to go online in the United States since 1996. The Energy Department estimated that as many as 50 new reactors might be needed by 2030.

Clean, however, is a relative term. Nuclear plants produce more than 2,200 tons of radioactive waste each year, including plutonium 239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years.

There is no one repository to put the waste. Plans for a permanent storage site under Yucca Mountain in Nevada have been stalled for years.

Schneider said spent fuel rods from reactors are stored in deep pools of water at Davis-Besse and Perry. Both pools are in concrete buildings "in the most-protected areas of the plants," Schneider said.

Davis-Besse also stores some of its spent rods in thick concrete "casks." Schneider said FirstEnergy will put rods in casks at Perry in 2013 after the water storage is full.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered a shutdown at Davis-Besse in 2002 after inspectors found that acid had nearly eaten through a 6-inch steel cap on its reactor vessel. The plant reopened in 2004 after repairs.

Subsequent inspections of the replacement cap found signs of cracking in 24 of its 69 nozzles. Schneider said a third replacement cap will be installed in October.

The Perry plant was shut down in December 2004 and January 2005 after NRC inspections revealed problems with pumps that circulate coolant through the reactor's core.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Sally Thelen said it's too early to tell whether the crisis in Japan will create problems for its proposal to build a nuclear plant near Piketon. Company and state officials announced the project in June 2009.

Thelen said the application process is slow, and the company hopes to open the plant by 2024.

shunt@dispatch.com