At the urging of Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) last Thursday said that he is sending investigators next week to FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio, which is already under scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after the plant’s operator discovered major corrosion on the plant’s reactor head.

In addition, House Energy Committee staff will meet with officials from the NRC to discuss past problems at the plant, Tauzin said.

“Public confidence in the safety of nuclear energy is critically-important to our long-range energy needs,” said Tauzin. “At Congressman Gillmor’s request, we will send investigators to Ohio to find out what went wrong at the Davis-Besse plant and how the federal government — working with private industry — can prevent this type of problem from occurring again.”

“We must obtain clear and complete data that can be analyzed, along with the best available science, to identify any problems and rapidly get them fixed,” said Gillmor. “I look forward to seeing this independent analysis of the Davis-Besse facility and stand ready to do whatever has to be done to help safeguard our fellow Ohioans who live close to the plant.”

The plant has been shut down since mid-February for refueling and maintenance. While repairing cracks in control rod tubes that penetrate the reactor vessel head, plant personnel discovered corrosion had eaten a cavity through six inches of carbon steel on the top of the reactor pressure vessel, the apparent result of corrosive coolant leakage from the reactor core.

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