Davis Besse Nuclear Plant, Ohio

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant is located 21 miles East of Toledo, Ohio, along the shore of Lake Erie, the source of its cooling water. It is home to a single pressurized water reactor, whose output capacity is 906MW. Its operating license was issued in 1977, making it one of two commercial nuclear power plants in Ohio (the other is the Perry plant, near Cleveland). FirstEnergy Solutions operates the plant on behalf of parent company FirstEnergy Corporation. Davis-Besse has been shut down for technical problems a few times since going on line in 1977. When it was shut down in February 2002 for refueling, operators discovered that boric acid had been dripping on the top of the reactor head, and had eaten away about 70 pounds of steel. The six-inch-deep hole was located in the shell that holds the coolant layer around the reactor core, and was 3/8 of an inch from going all the way through, which, should it have ruptured due to the one ton per square inch pressure inside, would have produced a potentially catastrophic accident. The plant was then closed for two years for repairs that cost $600 million, and more than $30 million in fines were levied. In 2018, FirstEnergy Solutions filed for bankruptcy protection, announcing its intention to close both of its nuclear power plants in Ohio by 2021.