[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1763-H1764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              LARGEST NUCLEAR SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, in my home State of Ohio, the largest 
nuclear scandal in American history has been perpetuated on our public.
  Ohio's only nuclear power is generated in northern Ohio, along Lake 
Erie by plants owned by Energy Harbor, previously known as FirstEnergy. 
For decades, FirstEnergy's customers have unknowingly paid for the 
outfall of this criminal company's nuclear malfeasance, careless 
management, and costly outages, and now criminality.
  When a hole in the nuclear reactor head at Davis-Besse proved to be 
the size of a pineapple, jaws dropped too late here in Washington at 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
  Where were they?
  When a switch failure triggered by FirstEnergy shut off power for 3 
days across the entire Midwest; Northeast; and Ontario, Canada, costing 
our economy $10 billion and nine lost lives, those in the commercial 
nuclear power world should have understood there was a big problem at 
FirstEnergy.

[[Page H1764]]

  Where were they?
  Neither the private sector nor the Federal Government did their jobs.
  Nuclear power production requires excellence and vigilance. No 
excuses. No passing the buck.
  FirstEnergy's business plan started to fail due to its huge repair 
costs resulting from its own mistakes. As the company sank into debt, 
rather than aspiring to excellence, it resorted to bribery, wire fraud, 
conspiracy, and racketeering. Thus, the largest commercial nuclear 
crimes in U.S. history are being litigated in Federal court in 
Cincinnati, Ohio.
  Convictions for accepting FirstEnergy bribes have been levied against 
Ohio's former house Republican Speaker Larry Householder and former 
Ohio Republican Party chair, Matt Borges. They led a criminal scheme in 
which FirstEnergy bribed them with $61 million in dark money. 
Householder used it for personal expenses, reelecting himself, and a 
slate of willing Republican and Democratic legislators, to bend the law 
to serve FirstEnergy's financial interests.
  Once in office, Householder led his handpicked politicians in a 
legislative bailout of FirstEnergy, foisting $1 billion plus in 
corporate nuclear energy and coal losses on Ohio's ratepayers. Never 
did Householder or his associates express any concern about 
FirstEnergy's nuclear mishaps, its awesome nuclear responsibility, and 
what really was required to restore operational excellence.
  If FirstEnergy's plan had exploded and fried everything in its radius 
in northern Ohio, including my house, Mr. Householder would not have 
been affected. He lives too far south, as do most coconspirators to the 
bribery scheme. Even prevailing winds generally don't blow in their 
direction, but an explosion would have completely polluted Lake Erie.
  FirstEnergy itself avoided fraud and criminal indictments by 
admitting its corporate guilt. Of course, nuclear malfeasance is not on 
trial, but it should be. Thus far, the court has ordered FirstEnergy to 
pay a historic $230 million settlement, the largest public fine in 
Ohio's history, although there were no fines for bigger crimes against 
the public interest by multiple nuclear endangerments.
  FirstEnergy's management made huge blunders in nuclear operation. 
Were it not for the skilled union laborers who three times put their 
lives at risk for our region, a nuclear catastrophe along Lake Erie was 
indeed possible. At least three major nuclear incidents have occurred 
during my lifetime: 1985, 2002, 2003.
  Davis-Besse plant records document the second and third as the worst 
nuclear incidents since Three Mile Island.
  The ongoing criminal litigation ignores these massive nuclear close 
calls. Each major nuclear blunder translated into real threats to 
lives, safety, and health.
  At what point does our Nation say no to a pattern of persistent 
commercial plant nuclear negligence and abysmal nuclear management?
  The time is now as our region tries to pick up the pieces and rebuild 
advanced nuclear--but not by past standards.
  The starting point to get effective safety monitoring in these two 
Ohio facilities begins by requesting the Federal Government's 
Government Accountability Office to perform thorough and independent 
nuclear safety audits of its aging nuclear facilities.
  The next step is to require the Nuclear Navy, with independent 
experts, to complete a thorough engineering analysis of the plant's 
remaining physical infrastructure.
  Next, specific individuals who were responsible for criminal activity 
at FirstEnergy must be identified and barred for life from working or 
contracting with the U.S. commercial nuclear industry, and we must also 
identify legal means to restore to ratepayers compensation for their 
losses.
  As Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the Nuclear Navy, said: 
``Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.''
  Let Ohio learn and let America learn, and let's do it right.

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