FE FirstEnergy Corp

AKRON, Ohio, Nov. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), today announced that Peter P. Sena III, currently president and chief operating officer, has been elected president and chief nuclear officer of FENOC.  In his new position, Sena will provide overall guidance and strategy to the FENOC nuclear fleet and interface with industry leadership to drive high standards and best practices that enhance U.S. nuclear industry performance. 

In a related move, Sam Belcher is joining FENOC as senior vice president, Operations, and chief operating officer.  Belcher, who will report to Sena, will provide day-to-day leadership focused on safe and reliable performance of FENOC's four nuclear units.  Both changes are effective December 10, 2012.

"As we continue to focus on achieving top industry performance, strong nuclear leadership with a focus on safety and excellence is critical to our success," said James H. Lash, FirstEnergy Generation president.  "With solid management expertise and technical knowledge, Pete has been an instrumental leader in our organization.  Together with Sam, who brings a strong operational background to the team, I am confident the team will continue to drive improvement and excellence within our fleet."

Sena joined the company in 1996 as an assistant shift supervisor at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, PA.  After serving on special assignment with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), he held a number of progressively responsible leadership positions at Beaver Valley in Operations and Engineering before being promoted to Beaver Valley site vice president in 2007.  Sena was promoted to senior vice president, FENOC Operations in 2010.  He was named to his current position of president and chief operating officer in 2011. 

Prior to joining the company, Sena was employed by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a resident inspector.  In addition, from 1985 to 1990, he was an officer in the United States Navy, serving with the nuclear submarine fleet.

Sena earned a bachelor of science degree in fuel science from The Pennsylvania State University.  He is a graduate of the INPO senior nuclear plant manager course.  In addition, he held a Senior Reactor Operator license for both Beaver Valley Unit 1 and Unit 2. 

A 21-year nuclear veteran, Belcher joins FENOC from Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, where he most recently served as senior vice president, Site Operations.  He has also held the positions of site vice president and plant general manager at Constellation's Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station.  Prior to Constellation, Belcher served as director of Fleet Operations at FENOC and held a number of leadership positions in Operations with Entergy Northwest and Entergy Nuclear.

Belcher attained a bachelor of science degree in Engineering from Arkansas Tech University and is a licensed professional engineer.  He also held a Senior Reactor Operator license for the River Bend Station.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio.  Its FENOC subsidiary operates the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa.; the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio; and the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters before FERC and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates, the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices and availability, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of our regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of CAIR, and any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, and the effects of the EPA's MATS rules, the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including NSR litigation or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units), the uncertainties associated with our plans to deactivate our older unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units and our plans to change the operations of certain fossil plants, including the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing of those deactivations and operational changes as they relate to, among other things, the RMR arrangements and the reliability of the transmission grid, issues that could result from the NRC's review of the indications of cracking in the Davis Besse Plant shield building, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the NRC or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to ME's and PN's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their transmission service charge riders, the continuing availability of generating units, changes in their operational status and any related impacts on vendor commitments, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency mandates, changes in customers' demand for power, including but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency mandates, the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals, our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins, the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution and Competitive Energy Services segments, changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in our NDTs, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and our subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated, the impact of changes to material accounting policies, the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our financing plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries, changes in general economic conditions affecting us and our subsidiaries, interest rates and any actions taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and our subsidiaries' access to financing, increased costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, the state of the national and regional economy and its impact on our major industrial and commercial customers, issues concerning the soundness of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC filings, and other similar factors. Dividends declared from time to time on FE's common stock during any annual period may in the aggregate vary from the indicated amount due to circumstances considered by FE's Board of Directors at the time of the actual declarations. A security rating is not a recommendation to buy or hold securities and is subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating agency. Each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

www.firstenergycorp.com

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.