WTOL.com, Toledo's News Leader, News 11 | Restaurant Worker Could Face Charges in Davis-Besse Threat Case

Restaurant Worker Could Face Charges in Davis-Besse Threat Case

PORT CLINTON -- The Port Clinton Police Department now says a threat against the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Oak Harbor is a hoax.  Investigators had been working on the case since Sunday, but the case broke open on Wednesday.

According to a news release from the Port Clinton Police Department, an employee at McCarthy's Restaurant in Port Clinton reported the threat on Sunday, saying two "arab-looking" men were talking about the plant, and wrote the word "boom" on a napkin.  The Port Clinton Police called in the Ottawa County Sheriff, the FBI, the Border Patrol, and the Coast Guard.

Extra patrols were set up around the plant, off Route 2 in Oak Harbor.

Investigators say when they looked further, they learned that the napkin was found Saturday, a day before it was reported to police.  Police interviewed a number of people, and say restaurant employee Katelyn McRitchie wrote other words on the napkin to make it look like a threat toward the power plant.

Police say McRitchie confessed to fabricating the story.  She could face charges of inducing panic or falsification after the county prosecutor reviews the case.

Count on News 11 to follow the case as it develops.

According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Davis-Besse is a pressurized water reactor made by Babcock and Wilcox with a generating capacity of 882 megawatts of electricity.  The commission issued an operating license for the plant on April 22, 1977, which expires in 2017.

It has had its share or problems, including an acid leak that almost ate a hole in the nuclear reactor's head.  The plant was shut down in 2002 for more than a year.

According to its web page, Davis-Besse's owner, FirstEnergy, operates 20 power plants with a total system capacity of more than 13,000 megawatts.  FirstEnergy makes 55% of its power with coal-fired plants, 28% of its power from nuclear plants, and 12% from natural gas or oil.  The rest comes from pumped-storage hydroelectric facilities.

The plant is named for former Toledo Edison Chairman John Davis and former Cleveland Electric Illuminating Chairman Ralph Besse.

On the Web:
Davis Besse Reactor Corrosion Info from the NRC: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation.html

FirstEnergy: http://www.firstenergycorp.com/index.html

Posted by AEB