Abstract
LAST YEAR, THE NUCLEAR REGUlatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear power industry received a shock over the safety of US. nuclear power plants and the quality of the nation's inspection program. Almost by accident, inspectors working for FirstEnergy Corp., the owner and operator of the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, discovered that all that stood between business as usual and a catastrophic disaster was a thin sheet of stainless steel cladding. That one-half-inch plate of steel was what remained to stop up a football-sized cavity in the reactor's vessel head that covers the reactor's core. Ifears of leakage from the reactor's primary coolant system was the source of boric acid that had dissolved 6 inches of carbon steel that encases the core. The result would have been a loss-of-coolant accident, and if the large leak overwhelmed safety systems, the plant could have suffered a reactor core meltdown. Depending on the speed ...
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