FE Nuke Plant Coverup

The Associated Press:

A contractor at FirstEnergy Corp.'s Beaver Valley nuclear power plant failed to do required reviews on a repair project and tried to cover it up, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.

An engineer with consulting firm Demark Inc. had knowingly signed paperwork on June 1, 2005, that said 25 required reviews were done on a project the preceded plans to replace a nuclear reactor vessel head, but only two or three reviews were actually completed, according to an NRC report that followed a yearlong investigation.

The reviews are important because they are supposed to evaluate how well the replacement reactor head will work with existing safety controls, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.