WARREN Lawmaker scraps nuke-plant hearing

NRC inspectors found a leak in an Ohio nuclear plant in February 2002.
By CHRIS COLLINS
STATES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- The worst nuclear power plant incident since the near-meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania more than a quarter-century ago is likely to be resolved without so much as a congressional hearing.
Rep. W.J. Tauzin, R-La., prodded by a fellow Republican who represents the troubled Davis-Besse nuclear plant area in Oak Harbor, Ohio, has pulled back from talk about conducting a public hearing at one of the subcommittees that he oversees.
Tauzin is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and a subcommittee chairman -- Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa. -- had indicated earlier this year that a hearing would be in order to examine the conduct of FirstEnergy Corp.
But Energy Daily, a trade press publication, has reported that the focus of the hearing, on FirstEnergy's plant, was said to have been viewed as too narrow, and unfair, and the hearing was scrapped.
The plant has been beset by a strange leak that caused a corrosion of the reactor top -- called the vessel head. The leak of corrosive boric acid that caused that near melt-through went undetected through the routine reviews that the nation's 103 operating nuclear generating stations face, leading to the concern. Since then, smaller problems of a similar nature have turned up at other nuclear facilities.
Statement
On Tuesday, Tauzin's spokesman, Ken Johnson, said, "Some concerns were raised about prematurely moving forward with a hearing before reviewing documents and conducting interviews." He said logistical problems and a shortage of issues to discuss were the main reasons a hearing would not be conducted in the immediate future.
There was some speculation that a hearing would occur after a May 7 letter heavily criticizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was sent out by Greenwood, who chairs the oversight and investigations subcommittee.
But Tauzin is now saying that the "collective wisdom" of the committee decided against having a hearing.
Pressure is off
The decision relieves some pressure on FirstEnergy, which has already been in the spotlight for failing to catch the football-sized hole that left only a half-inch stainless steel liner intact to contain radioactive steam and water in the reactor.
The extensive nature of the corrosion shocked NRC inspectors when they visited the plant in February 2002, it has been reported.
The Energy Daily report cited Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Ohio, as one of the committee members who may have influenced the decision to not have a hearing. It quoted Gillmor as saying that he didn't mind having the hearing as long as it looked into "all the utilities that have a similar situation."
A spokesman for Gillmor on Tuesday denied that he had killed the hearing. The congressman had requested last year that an investigation into the Davis-Besse case be conducted, he said.