12:00 AM CST on Saturday, January 21, 2006

/ Associated Press

CLEVELAND – FirstEnergy Corp. agreed Friday to pay a record $28 million in fines for covering up an Ohio nuclear plant acid leak that nearly ate through the reactor vessel's 6-inch-thick steel cap. It was the most extensive corrosion ever seen at a U.S. nuclear reactor.

The utility and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded that the boric-acid hole had been growing for at least four years at the Davis-Besse plant and that managers had ignored and withheld the evidence because they were more interested in profits than safety at the plant, on Lake Erie about 30 miles east of Toledo.

U.S. Attorney Greg White said the government can prosecute FirstEnergy if it breaks the terms of the agreement, which calls for adopting certain safety standards and prohibits the nation's fourth-largest investor-owned utility from passing along the fine to its 4.4 million customers.

"We have learned much from this experience," said Gary R. Leidich, president of the company's nuclear operations.

The plant was closed for two years after the damage was discovered in 2002 but returned to full power in 2004.