Davis-Besse is a single unit nuclear reactor located in Oak Harbor, Ohio. It is owned and operated by FirstEnergy Corp .
Unit One
Unit One is a 873MWe Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by Babcock and Wilcox. The reactor was shut down from 2002 until early 2004 for safety repairs and upgrades, so recent operational statistics are not yet availible for the unit.
Incident History
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Davis-Besse has been the source of two of the top five most dangerous nuclear incidents in the United States since 1979.
In 1985, feedwater pumps necessary to cool the nuclear core broke down. Based on the probability of a nuclear meltdown, the NRC rated this the most dangerous nuclear incident since Three Mile Island had a partial meltdown.
In March of 2002, after the government had allowed a delay in safety inspections past a December 31, 2001 deadline, it was discovered that boric acid had eaten almost all the way through a 6 1/2 inch reactor pressure vessel. A breach would have flooded the reactor containment building with radioactive material and damaged safety equipment, possibly causing a meltdown. The reactor was shut down for two years, during which time further design flaws were discovered in the plant that increased the likelihood of a meltdown incident. The incident was ranked fifth most dangerous by the NRC. Repairs and upgrades cost $600 million, and the Davis-Besse reactor was restarted in March of 2004.
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