Engineers have likely discovered more cracks in the shield building of Ohio’s Davis-Besse nuclear plant, but owner FirstEnergy remains confident the reactor’s head replacement will be finished in November.
While cutting a 22-foot-wide hole in the building to swap out the RPV head of its Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor last month, crews discovered a 30-foot-long hairline crack in the building’s concrete. That prompted electronic testing and concrete sampling that revealed indications of more hairline cracks below the soil, the company reported Monday. The Toledo Blade, quoting a FirstEnergy letter to stockholders, reported the utility continues to investigate the cracks, and onsite inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are observing their findings.
Nonetheless, the shareholder letter said FirstEnergy expects the reactor near Toledo to come back online by the end of the month. Once the first crack was discovered, FirstEnergy officials were quick to point out they do not believe the issue is similar to the concrete delamination that required costly repairs at Florida’s Crystal River plant after crews cut a hole in its outer building. Notably, Davis-Besse’s reactor containment is a separate steel structure within the building, while Crystal River’s containment is attached to its outer building.