The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection to investigate ground settling at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in northwest Ohio, including two incidents that damaged dedicated fire-protection water lines.
The commission said Tuesday that a five-member special inspection team arrived at the power plant on Monday.
“The NRC determined a special inspection was necessary,” the commission said in a release citing that “multiple occurrences of ground settling” have occurred at the plant, including one in October and another just weeks ago that damaged the water lines. Neither settling incident occurred under the containment building holding the reactor.
The inspection team has expertise in plant fire protection, component aging, operations, geology, seismology and other geotechnical sciences, and license renewal.
Originally licensed in 1977, Davis-Besse is now licensed to operate until 2037. The 894-MW plant is owned by Akron-based Energy Harbor. A company spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.
The “special inspection team will establish a historical sequence of events related to ground-settling zones and assess the licensee’s actions to evaluate, monitor or mitigate the phenomenon and its potential impact on equipment important to safety,” the NRC said.
The team will review plant records related to ground settling, repair records related to the impacts of ground settling and geological assessments done before the plant was built, according to an NRC spokesperson, who added that the October incident was the first one affecting plant equipment of which the commission is aware.
In both cases, plant workers immediately repaired the water lines and on-site NRC inspectors reviewed their work reports. No incident reports were filed because the damaged lines were immediately repaired and did not require shutdown of the reactor.
Energy Harbor is being acquired by Texas-based Vistra in a deal expected to be completed by the end of 2024. (See Vistra Pays more than $3 Billion for Energy Harbor.)
