Nuclear Power Plant marks 30 years

Operation began Nov. 18, 1987

Mark Mlachak was there for a lot of firsts at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, enough of them that he admits he doesn’t remember all of them.

Among those firsts was being in the control room on the day the plant in North Perry began commercial operation on Nov. 18, 1987.

With a set list full of songs from the 1980s, the Perry Power Plant employees celebrated the plant’s 30th anniversary on Nov. 17.

Construction crews broke ground in 1974 on the country’s 100th nuclear power plant.

Mlachak, now the fleet oversight manager, began working at the plant six years before it would go online for commercial operation. A Willoughby Hills native and South High School graduate, working at the Perry Nuclear Plant was something of a homecoming for him after spending six years on a submarine with the U.S. Nuclear Navy program.

It’s not hard for Jeff Tufts to remember when he started working at the plant — Feb. 7, 1987, three weeks before his daughter was born. Like Mlachak, he spent six years on a submarine with the U.S. Nuclear Navy program.

Mlachak said a number of early employees came out of that program. Many also came from the steel industry.

Of the more than 700 people currently working at the plant, 120 of them have been there since it opened for commercial operations.

The current Perry High School wasn’t there yet and Tufts notes there were no traffic lights between his home and his plant. Now there are 10, he said.

Among t he bi g ge st changes since the plant opened is security, the two said. There’s much more of it now, and 9/11 was the impetus for some of that increase, they said.

The pair of long time employees said one thing that hasn’t changed is the work

ethic.

“There’s a commitment I have not experienced in other places,” Tufts said.

He admits the plant can intrude on family life and appreciates the support

families have shown the plants employees. There are sacrifices, but it’s an exciting job.

“If you like large, rotating pieces of equipment, this is where it’s at,” he

said.

Kelly Yeager wears a lot of different hats at the plant, including chemistry operations supervisor. She said it’s a great place to work because you’re al-

ways doing something different.

“It’s not like working on a line,” the 20-year employee said. “There’s always something new. I never get bored. Ever.”

At the celebration, site vice president David Hamilton ran down some of history and trivia about the plant.

About seven months before the plant opened for commercial operation, The Simpsons first appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show. No worries though, Homer is not working at the Perry Nuclear Plant, Hamilton joked.

As the plant celebrates its 30th anniversary, questions about its future loom. FirstEnergy announced last November it is planning to exit the competitive generation business and could sell or shutter the plants. Nuclear power pla nt s a re struggling to compete against the cheaper cost of natural gas.

There are currently efforts at the state and federal levels to subsidize the plants.

The plant is currently licensed through 2026 and can apply for a 20-year extension to operate through 2046.

“We’re a very young plant in many perspectives,” Hamilton sa id . “Thirty years seems like a lot, but I refer to it as halfway through our lifetime.”

COURTESY OF FIRSTENERGY The Unit 1 Containment Dome was set atop the Perry Nuclear Power Plant’s Containment Building in May 1981.

MARK DUNCAN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Operator Kevin Holko monitors the control room during a scheduled refueling shutdown at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in North Perry.