OAK HARBOR, Ohio, April 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Modifications to control rod drive mechanism nozzles at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, began late last week.
A team of 80 contract engineers and technicians is using industry-proven methods, including robotic welding, to make modifications to 16 of the 69 nozzles on the reactor head. The process involves removing the lower half of each affected nozzle and re-welding the remaining section to provide structural integrity. The contractor team has made nearly 100 similar modifications at other U.S. nuclear power plants.
Following this work, additional evaluation and testing will be conducted on the remaining nozzles and may identify indications that require modification. This testing is expected to begin in May and take approximately two weeks. The initial nozzle inspection process began on March 12 and included ultrasonic testing, liquid dye penetrant examinations and two separate visual inspections.
The impact of the modification work on the duration of the outage schedule has not yet been determined.
"While we have inspected all the nozzles, we believe the additional testing will help ensure that all necessary modifications are made," said Barry Allen, vice president of Davis-Besse. "We will restart the plant when we are confident that all the modifications have been successfully completed and the plant is ready for continued safe and reliable operations."
The 908-megawatt plant shut down for scheduled refueling and maintenance work on February 28. Refueling and other scheduled maintenance activities continue at the plant.
Davis-Besse is part of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE).
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Actual results may differ materially due to the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry and legislative and regulatory changes affecting how generation rates will be determined following the expiration of existing rate plans in Pennsylvania, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, business and regulatory impacts from American Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other charges or to recover increased transmission costs, operating and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, revised environmental requirements, including possible greenhouse gas emission regulations, the potential impacts of the U.S. Court of Appeals' July 11, 2008 decision requiring revisions to the Clean Air Interstate Rules and the scope of any laws, rules or regulations that may ultimately take their place, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures needed to, among other things, implement the Air Quality Compliance Plan (including that such amounts could be higher than anticipated or that certain generating units may need to be shut down) or levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving the New Source Review litigation or other similar potential regulatory initiatives or actions, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes (including, but not limited to, the revocation of necessary licenses or operating permits and oversight) by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, factors that may further delay, or increase the costs associated with (including replacement power costs), the restart of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station from its current refueling outage, including that the repairs to control rod drive mechanism nozzles take longer than expected or are not effective, other conditions requiring remediation are discovered during the extended outage, or the NRC takes adverse action in connection with any of the foregoing; Metropolitan Edison Company's and Pennsylvania Electric Company's transmission service charge filings with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the continuing availability of generating units and their ability to operate at or near full capacity, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals (including employee workforce initiatives), the ability to improve electric commodity margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, the changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in FirstEnergy's nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause it to make additional contributions sooner, or in an amount that is larger than currently anticipated, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with FirstEnergy's financing plan and the cost of such capital, changes in general economic conditions affecting the company, the state of the capital and credit markets affecting the company, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect FirstEnergy's access to financing or its costs or increase its requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees, the continuing decline of the national and regional economy and its impact on the company's major industrial and commercial customers, issues concerning the soundness of financial institutions and counterparties with which FirstEnergy does business, the expected timing and likelihood of completion of the proposed merger with Allegheny Energy, Inc., including the timing, receipt and terms and conditions of any required governmental and regulatory approvals of the proposed merger that could reduce anticipated benefits or cause the parties to abandon the merger, the diversion of management's time and attention from our ongoing business during this time period, the ability to maintain relationships with customers, employees or suppliers as well as the ability to successfully integrate the businesses and realize cost savings and any other synergies and the risk that the credit ratings of the combined company or its subsidiaries may be different from what the companies expect and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in its Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and other similar factors. 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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
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