nuclear-news

Big price fall for First Energy due to crack in Davis-Besse nuclear plant.

FirstEnergy Falls After Report of Nuclear Reactor Cracks Bloomberg By Julie Johnsson and Mark Chediak – Oct 13, 2011  FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) fell after a report that engineers discovered cracks in the concrete shell of its Davis-Besse nuclear plant.

FirstEnergy fell 2.8 percent to $43.76 at the close in New York. The Akron, Ohio-based power company had earlier dropped 5 percent, its biggest intraday decline since Aug. 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg…..

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the structural damage to the concrete building that protects the reactor from tornadoes and other hazards, said Viktoria Mitlyng, spokeswoman for the nuclear agency, in a telephone interview.

Previous Problems  Davis-Besse was shuttered for more than three months in 2010 after workers discovered cooling water leaking through cracks in some reactor-head nozzles, steel casings that hold fuel and control rods.

Leaks and reactor corrosion prompted FirstEnergy to close the plant for two years, from 2002 to 2004, while the company retrained or replaced workers who ignored signs of damage, and eventually replaced the reactor head.

The leaks found last year at the 900-megawatt plant prompted the Union of Concerned Scientists in April 2010 to demand that the plant remain closed until its owners established better controls to maintain health and safety standards.

October 14, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents