http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=f6a5c1271e0527a6&cat=c08dd24cec417021Largest fine ever sought against nuke plant
Acid ate through most of shield, raising risk of meltdownMSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET April 21, 2005TOLEDO, Ohio - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed a record $5.45 million fine Thursday against the operator of a nuclear plant where leaking acid ate nearly all the way through a 6-inch-thick steel cap on the reactor vessel.
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The NRC said FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. restarted the Davis-Besse plant in 2000 without completing a cleaning and inspection of the reactor vessel head, then misled the agency about what it had done.
The leaking boric acid was found two years later during a routine inspection — the most extensive corrosion ever seen at a U.S. nuclear reactor.
Federal regulators estimated there were six chances in a 1,000 that the plant could have experienced a meltdown during the year before it was shut down for routine maintenance in February 2002. Normally, the risk of an accident at Davis-Besse is about six in 100,000.
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What a disaster waiting to happen who needs terrorists!!!