DeWine

State legislation that designates nuclear power as “green energy” and expands oil/natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) leases on state land was forwarded this week to the desk of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The Republican governor has 10 days after receiving House Bill 308 to either sign it into law or veto it. A “green” designation would imply state recognition that nuclear energy causes no harm to the natural environment.

Pro arguments: In its coverage of the bill, Spectrum News quoted Greg Lawson, a research fellow at the Buckeye Institute, as defending nuclear energy. “Nuclear energy is zero carbon emission, and from that standpoint, it certainly addresses a lot of the concerns that folks have when they’re concerned about what happens to the climate. . . . Right now, Ohio is facing a real challenge. We’ve got a lot of data centers coming into Ohio. This is a massive issue. These things consume just incredible amounts of electricity,” Lawson said.

The State of Ohio and FirstEnergy reached a settlement this week to avoid prosecution in an ongoing corruption investigation involving the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants.

In 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio charged the energy company with conspiring “with public officials and other individuals and entities to pay millions of dollars to public officials in exchange for specific official action for FirstEnergy Corp.’s benefit.”

FirstEnergy will pay $19.5 million to the attorney general’s office within five business days and will pay $500,000 for an independent consultant to review and confirm unspecified “changes and remediation efforts” within the company. The company will also cooperate with investigators for two years or until the investigation, litigation, or prosecution is complete.

Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corporation has been charged with wire fraud and will pay a $230 million monetary penalty over its role in a $61-million corruption and racketeering scheme to secure state subsidies for Ohio’s nuclear power plants, Davis-Besse and Perry.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has dismissed a challenge to the previously approved transfer of the license for the shuttered Three Mile Island-2 power reactor from FirstEnergy to a subsidiary of EnergySolutions for decommissioning. The order by the NRC commissioners denying the motion by Three Mile Island Alert to hold the license transfer in abeyance was issued on June 22.

The Ohio House of Representatives has voted to rescind the nuclear subsidy provisions of H.B. 6, the controversial 2019 piece of legislation that has been marinating in scandal since last July. Just one week earlier, a similar measure was passed unanimously in the Ohio Senate.

Approved by a tally of 86-7 on March 10, H.B. 128 strips H.B. 6 of subsidies for Energy Harbor’s Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, as well as a “decoupling” provision that would have been of substantial financial benefit to FirstEnergy Corporation, the former parent company of Energy Harbor. The new bill retains H.B. 6’s subsidies for utility-scale solar projects, however, and for two coal plants (one in Ohio, one in Indiana).

H.B. 128 was sponsored by Reps. James Hoops (R., Dist. 81) and Dick Stein (R., Dist. 57).

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the license for Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant from FirstEnergy Companies to TMI-2 Solutions, a subsidiary of Utah-based EnergySolutions. The approval, announced on December 2, is effective immediately, and the license will be amended to reflect the new ownership once the sale of TMI-2 is completed.

Chuck Jones, former FirstEnergy CEO

Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corporation—former parent of Energy Harbor, the owner of Ohio’s Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants—announced on October 29 that it has fired its chief executive officer, Charles “Chuck” Jones, as well as its senior vice president of product development, marketing, and branding and its senior vice president of external affairs.

The actions, according to FirstEnergy, were prompted by an internal company review undertaken in response to the scandal surrounding H.B. 6—the now infamous legislation signed into law last year by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine that includes subsidies for Davis-Besse and Perry and that is at the heart of an alleged multi-million dollar racketeering and corruption scheme aimed at guaranteeing its passage.

In the announcement, FirstEnergy said only that its review “determined that these executives violated certain FirstEnergy policies and its code of conduct.” Replacing Jones is Steven E. Strah, who had been the firm’s president.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a petition by Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA) challenging Exelon’s request to revise its site emergency plan for the closed Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Exelon submitted a request to the NRC to amend its TMI-1 license to reflect the reduced risks of the defueled reactor, which was permanently shut down in September 2019.

In an order issued on October 8, the NRC commissioners upheld a decision by an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board denying TMIA’s petition to intervene and request a hearing in the license amendment request. That decision, issued on January 23, 2020, found that the antinuclear group had not established standing in the case and that its contentions were inadmissible.

The American nuclear professional community is deeply disturbed by alleged political corruption in Ohio related to the passage of House Bill 6. If the allegations are true, they represent a breach of public trust that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.