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Jury Convicts Ex-Nuclear Worker, Acquits Other

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By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press

Published: October 31, 2007

TOLEDO, Ohio - A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a former nuclear plant worker of concealing the worst corrosion ever found at a U.S. reactor. A second defendant was acquitted.

David Geisen, the Davis-Besse plant's former engineering design manager, was accused of misleading regulators into believing the plant along Lake Erie was safe. He faces as many as five years in prison.
Private contractor Rodney Cook was acquitted by the same federal jury.

Prosecutors said the men lied in fall 2001 so the plant could delay a shutdown for a safety inspection. Months later, inspectors found an acid leak that had nearly eaten through the reactor's 6-inch-thick steel cap. It's not clear how close the plant was to an accident.
Federal prosecutor Tom Ballantine said Geisen and Cook told regulators that an area of the plant the NRC was concerned about had been inspected and that there was no reason to worry. But the inspections were not completed, and the pair knew it, Ballantine said.

Attorneys for Geisen and Cook said the men never were in a position to know how bad the leak had become at the plant, about 30 miles east of Toledo. They added that their clients had nothing to gain by delaying a shutdown.

Richard Hibey, Geisen's attorney, said he was unsure why the jury split the verdict. Cook's attorney, John Conroy, said he was pleased his client was cleared but thought Geisen should have been acquitted, too.

The plant's operator, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., paid a record $28 million in fines a year ago while avoiding federal charges.

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