Nuclear plant clears inspection to reopen

BRIDGMAN (AP) - The nuclear plant that was shut down and fined $500,000 for safety violations has cleared an important regulatory hurdle necessary to resume operations later this year.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week closed the Confirmatory Action Letter it issued against the D.C. Cook Nuclear Plant in 1997, an action which essentially means the plant has fixed the problems that resulted in the shutdown.

"They still have additional work to do, but certainly this is an important step," NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said. "There will be at least one more meeting with the company and we'll be doing a final restart readiness inspection, probably sometime next month."

David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that had opposed an earlier Cook restart, said he is satisfied with the NRC's findings, and has no plans to challenge them.

American Electric Power hopes to restart the Unit 2 reactor in April. The Unit 1 reactor is scheduled to restart on Sept. 1. Both will undergo a separate set of NRC inspections before then.

The plant's reactors have been shut down for repairs and safety checks since September 1997, when federal officials found fibrous material used for pipe insulation and other purposes could get loose and block drains needed to pump water to the reactor to cool it if it overheated.

NRC officials also found problems with the plant's ice system that is used to help cool the reactor core in an emergency. Inspectors found some ice was missing, some baskets holding it were broken and that debris could clog drains needed to recirculate the water after it melted.

The plant was fined $500,000 in 1998 for 37 safety violations.

The plant prepared a comprehensive plan to fix the problems. The NRC used the plan to develop a check list of those items necessary for safe operation.

Cook had made earlier attempts to win approval for a restart in 1998 and 1999. But those efforts were delayed after plant and federal officials said they were unsure its safety systems could properly contain a nuclear accident.

In this week's letter, dated Feb. 2, NRC administrator J.E. Dyer said that inspectors visited the plant late last year and the agency is satisfied the safety concerns "have been adequately resolved."

Cook officials welcomed the news, although the reactors still must pass other tests before they get the green light.

The Unit 2 reactor still has about eight weeks of work to be completed, including reloading ice into the ice condenser.

Unit 1, which is scheduled to restart Sept. 1, is undergoing a $165 million steam generator replacement. The total startup costs are expected to be $382 million.

"The end is clearly in sight now, and we must continue to safely and deliberately proceed down the path to restart the units," AEP Senior Vice President Bob Powers said in a press release.