NEWPORT, Mich. — Federal regulators say they have outlined what steps need to be taken for the Fermi 2 nuclear reactor building to be brought back into compliance during its next shutdown.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission primarily raised concerns about a doughnut-shaped component called the torus, a part beneath the reactor vessel which is designed to absorb energy from the reactor or to supply water to safety systems during an accident. 

In an Oct. 4 letter to Paul Fessler, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer for the plant’s owner-operator, DTE Energy Co., the NRC said degraded torus coatings inside Fermi 2’s containment building must be scraped away and replaced with “a qualified coating capable of withstanding design basis accident conditions.”

“Partially filled with water, the inside of the torus is coated with paint to prevent corrosion,” the NRC said. “If the coating were to separate from the torus wall, the resulting debris could potentially affect the flow of water to safety-related equipment.”

The letter, signed by the NRC’s Midwest regional administrator, Darrell Roberts, said regulators are willing to let the work be phased in as part of the next refueling outage, so long as the shutdown begins as scheduled on April 30 or sooner.

The NRC said in a news release it had raised questions about the torus during an inspection last May. The commission followed that up with a more detailed inspection in July, the conclusions of which are to be made public later.

Fermi 2 is along western Lake Erie in northern Monroe County’s Frenchtown Township, about 30 miles north of downtown Toledo. It is licensed to operate through March 20, 2045.

First Published October 8, 2019, 10:40 p.m.