CLEVELAND (AP) — A watchdog group has questioned the soundness of a nuclear plant along Lake Erie where tiny cracks have been found in thick concrete on the outside of the reactor's containment building.
Contractors replacing a cracked reactor head at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse plant outside Toledo first discovered a 30-foot hairline crack. Further inspections found numerous, tiny cracks in the building's outside facade.
The building's concrete shell is meant to protect the reactor from tornado debris, an aircraft or anything else that might hit it.
FirstEnergy believes the building's walls are safe and says they have been closely inspected.
But the Union of Concerned Scientists has written the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking whether the concrete walls were built to adequate engineering specifications, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported.
The NRC said Monday that the letter is being reviewed.
Akron-based FirstEnergy wants to re-start the reactor at the end of the month. It has been shut down for installation of a new 82-ton reactor head, replacing one that cracked.
But the questions could delay the restart of the reactor, The Plain Dealer reported.