Federal regulators keeping close eye on Perry Nuclear Generating Station near Cleveland

NORTH PERRY, Ohio - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is keeping a close eye on the Perry Nuclear Generating Station near Cleveland following a series of worker related safety issues.

The NRC says it's continuing to complete a series of 25 separate inspections at the plant that began last year as a result of violations that could have resulted in workers being overexposed to radiation.

The plant is located 35 miles east of Cleveland and has been operating since 1987.

An exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation Tuesday at 11 p.m. examines two years of inspection reports, NRC letters to FirstEnergy, which operates the plant, as well as rare access to the NRC's Incident Response Center located near Chicago that monitors nuclear plants across the country.

In an exclusive interview, NRC Region III Administrator Chuck Casto told NewsChannel5 that, "we are a relentless regulator. Every day we have people on the site."

FirstEnergy has confirmed that "there are challenges at Perry that do not meet our standards, and we are taking a large number of actions to improve those." The company said the plant "continues to operate safely."

Our exclusive investigation on NewsChannel5 at 11 p.m. reveals why the NRC and FirstEnergy are concerned about safety issues inside the plant, and what is being done about them.