FYI: GAO Investigating FirstEnergy Nuke Plant
When Kucinich tried before to get a Congressional investigation into FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant (where corrosion left only 3/8 inch of shielding to protect against another Three Mile Island, he didn't get anywhere. It seems that all the attention focused on FirstEnergy because of its apparent role in Blackout 2003 has given new life to the campaign to find out what went wrong at Davis-Besse and how to fix it. The Biloxi Sun Herald reports:
The investigative arm of Congress is looking into the federal government's handling of problems at a nuclear plant owned by FirstEnergy - the Ohio-based utility at the center of the investigation into last week's blackout.
FirstEnergy's nuclear plant, shuttered since early last year, is the subject of an investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The General Accounting Office, in turn, has been exploring the adequacy of NRC's inspection of the plant since late last year.
"The objectives of the job are to look at events surrounding the shut down of the nuclear plant and the angle the GAO in studying is the NRC's oversight of that plant," said Jim Wells, the GAO's chief for nuclear-related investigations.
Wells said the investigation, which began in December, would be completed in April and that results would be made public after they were sent to Congress.
The GAO is acting at the request by four members of Congress - Sen. George Voinovich R-Ohio, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio.
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