Word: zimmering
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...that own it, and inadequate supervision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Earlier this month the three owners-Cincinnati Gas & Electric, Dayton Power & Light, and Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric-began to consider their options. Among them was the sobering possibility of abandoning the project. Such a move would turn Zimmer into nuclear America's biggest white elephant to date, and a woeful, if extreme, example of the quality-control problems besetting other nuclear projects around the country...
...Zimmer's costs have ballooned alarmingly. The initial estimate, in 1969, was $240 million. So far, the three utilities have spent $1.6 billion. The Bechtel Power Corp., brought in a year ago to help manage the plant's construction, last month came up with the latest projection. The proper completion of the plant, says Bechtel, would raise the total to a staggering $3.1 billion. While the utilities ponder whether to continue with Zimmer, interest charges on loans taken out as long ago as 1971 keep piling up. Each day's delay means $500,000 added...
...Beyond Zimmer's financial debacle lies the issue of shoddy construction at the plant. In an effort to contain costs, Cincinnati Gas tried to skimp on quality-control measures and personnel. In November 1981, the NRC fined the utility $200,000 after discovering the first of some 15,000 violations of its quality-assurance regulations. A year later, the commission halted construction because of Cincinnati Gas' continued failure to meet its quality guidelines, the first time that the NRC had ever taken such a step when construction was so far advanced. Some of the steel used at Zimmer...
...turned to the NRC, which after an initial investigation found no problems at Zimmer...
...charges, the NRC made a second investigation and discovered that Cincinnati Gas did not keep proper records of the welds or of the origin of materials used at the plant, and did not test welds according to NRC specifications. The agency labeled the quality of work at Zimmer "indeterminate...