Bush "Pioneer" Caused The Blackout

[Tennessee Gal]

Read the article: http://www.mahablog.com/

Concludes with this:
So let's see -- a power company facing a Clinton Administration lawsuit gives big bucks to the Republicans and ends up playing a role in the new administration's transition team. And, possibly, this company helped write government policy on energy, although we can't know that for sure because the Vice President is protecting the names of GOP donors on his task force. In other words, business as usual for the Bushies.

[farmbo]

1. First Energy Corp: GOP Contributions as far as the eye can see

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/cgi-win/indivs.exe

(Sorry...This link only takes you to OpenSecrets...you'll have to type in "First Energy" into a search request for the 2000 election cycle)


Those were their 345kv lines (or a subsidary, Ohio Edison) that went dark first and their breaker system that failed to remove them from the North American grid, causing the cascade.

[TahitiNut]

7. Look here first.

http://www.opensecrets.org/softmoney/softcomp1.asp?txtName=FirstEnergy

[Tennessee Gal]

2. Bush/Cheney Energy Team

Tony Alexander, President, First Energy Corp and Bush "Pioneer"

The Bush-Cheney Energy Plan, Players, Profits and Paybacks.
http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/aplayers2.asp

[DemoTex]

3. GOP gifts that keep on giving.

Kind of like Kennyboy Lay and the current fiasco in California. How much damage will these assholes be allowed to inflict on our environment, economy, government, and culture before the worms in the press and in Congress wave the Bullshit flag?

[oasis]

4. Definitely worth a long look.

:kick:

[peekaloo]

5. explains that deer in the headlights look

DimSon was sportin' Thursday night......everything these bastards touch.......:mad:

[bigtree]

6. pioneer mischief

The pioneer is Anthony J. Alexander, president and chair of FirstEnergy. Energy secretary Spencer Abraham also got $2000 for his failed campaign from FirstEnergy. In fact the Bush campaign collected $825,000 from electric utilities according to their own accounting.
FirstEnergy is into nuclear power in Ohio. The Davis Besse nuclear power plant is on Lake Erie, between Toledo and Cleveland. In March 2002, workers going through the plant during a refueling outage discovered a football-sized hole in the head of the nuclear reactor, caused by leaking boric acid. The only thing which prevented a rupture of the reactor head was a 3/8" lining of stainless steel, which was not designed to contain the high pressure within the reactor and was already cracking and bulging. The extent of damage was unprecedented in a nuclear plant in the United States. The plant’s owner, FirstEnergy, had spent over $400 million on repairs and replacement power to date.

My first thought when I heard that the lights had'nt gone out in the suspected Ohio plant's service area was that the problem was at the Davis Besse nuclear plant. Remember there were scattered reports earlier on about a possible mishap at a nuclear plant?

[diamond14]

9. NYT: Nuclear Reactor HOLE at Davis-Besse nuclear plant..(link)

this article tries to play down the REAL danger...

March 19, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Hole.html

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- A second hole has been found in a steel cap that covers a nuclear power plant's reactor vessel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday.

The hole is smaller than one found two weeks ago that federal inspectors said was the largest ever discovered on top of a U.S. nuclear plant reactor. The holes at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant do not pose a safety threat, agency spokesman Jan Strasma said.

``This may provide more information about the cause and how the other cavity developed,'' Strasma said.

Two weeks ago, inspectors at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant found that leaking boric acid caused a 6-inch hole in a steel cap near a cracked control rod nozzle. The hole was stopped by a layer of steel impervious to the acid.

Even if the acid had penetrated the massive cap and allowed steam to escape, safety systems would have immediately cooled the reactor, Strasma said. The steam would contain some radioactive material, but would have been confined by the reactor containment building.

The second cavity is about 1 3/4 inch deep, Strasma said. Workers will need to take out the nozzle to determine its exact size.

It wasn't known how long the two nozzles have been leaking.

After the first hole was found, the regulatory commission alerted the nation's 102 other commercial nuclear plants to watch for similar problems. Strasma said Tuesday no other plant had found problems.

[diamond14]

10. Reuters: (link) First Energy...corrosion at Davis-Besse nuke plant

Ohio nuclear plant corrosion raises concerns, says NRC

Wednesday, March 20, 2002
By Reuters
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/03/03202002/reu_46715.asp

WASHINGTON - U.S. regulators Tuesday ordered 69 nuclear plants to submit reactor safety information after finding unexpected corrosion at an Ohio plant owned by FirstEnergy Corp. that raised broader concerns.

FirstEnergy last month shut its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, due to corrosion inside the reactor chamber.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) wrote to 69 U.S. plants with pressurized water reactors similar to Davis-Besse's seeking information on their structural integrity. The agency said it did not believe the problems at the Ohio plant could release radiation into the atmosphere but that they could reduce its margin of safety.

The other 34 reactors, which use boiling water reactors, were not required to take any action. There are 103 total operating U.S. nuclear power plants, which generate about 20 percent U.S. electricity supplies.

Regulators gave the utilities two weeks to respond, a short turnaround that "reflects the seriousness with which we view this," an NRC spokesman said.

While refueling the Ohio plant in February, FirstEnergy found an area on top of a high-pressure vessel which contains the nuclear reaction that showed unusual wear. Corrosion left less than one-quarter inch of stainless steel to protect the top of the reactor vessel, normally shielded by 6.5 inches of carbon steel, the NRC spokesman said.

The NRC said it expects that a corrosive coolant leaking from the reactor core ate through the pressure vessel but has not announced definite findings. "The issue could have generic implications for other pressurized water reactors," the spokesman said.

The NRC said it will use the new information to determine if its current inspection and maintenance practices are adequate.

FirstEnergy's 925-megawatt plant supplies electricity to the Midwest electricity grid.

NRC inspections now underway at Davis-Besse show boric acid in the cooling water was a contributing cause of corrosion. Boric acid is added to the water to control the speed of the nuclear reaction.

Last year, the NRC identified 13 reactors that either developed or were believed highly susceptible to developing tiny cracks that could damage power plant equipment and cause lengthy shutdowns for repairs. Of the 13 units, cracks were found and repairs were made at three. Eight did not show cracks.

Two plants - the Davis-Besse plant and American Electric Power's Cook 2 unit in Michigan - were to be inspected. Repairs were made at the 1,090-megawatt Cook 2 reactor earlier this year.

[bigtree]

11. Davis-Besse

Ohio Citizen Action has the line on Davis-Besse. Here's one article:

NRC officials who oversaw Davis-Besse are promoted:

ROCKVILLE, MD -- "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission promoted six people to senior management positions in July, including two responsible for the agency's oversight of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant during the years that an undetected rust hole grew and eventually nearly breached the reactor's lid.
Sam Collins, who since 1997 has run the office of nuclear reactor regulation at the NRC's Rockville, Md., headquarters, yesterday was named the agency's deputy executive director for reactor programs. That position is one step below executive director, the NRC's chief administrative officer.
Jim Dyer, since 1999 the top man at the NRC's Midwest regional office in Chicago, will succeed Collins. . .As regional administrator, it was to have been Dyer who decided whether to allow the long-idled Davis-Besse to resume making electricity. The new administrator, Jim Caldwell, will now make that call, in consultation with headquarters officials including Dyer, said NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng," John Mangels, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

(For more Davis-Besse coverage, go to www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse)

http://www.ohiocitizen.org
http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/electric/nucfront.html

Kucinich has been pressing hard to get the 'crippled' plant closed.
That would be 8 Ohio nuke plants closed and 1 to go.


Digging, digging...

[Tennessee Gal]

8. New link for original article posted!

http://www.mahablog.com/home/id22.html

[oasis]

12. and kick

:kick: