It was a dark and stormy night when Lake Anna residents, staff members from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC) and officials from Dominion Power met to discuss plans for a third nuclear reactor on Lake Anna. And heated-meeting clichés abounded, from groan-inducing activist rants to talking-point softball questions to government officials baffled by the mechanics of using a microphone.
 Some members of the public wanted to know how to derail the process—others were more inclined to want it on the fast track. |
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Some members of the public wanted to know how to derail the process—others were more inclined to want it on the fast track.
Dominion is expected to apply for a "combination" permit in November, which, if approved, allows for both the construction and operation of a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Station. Marvin Smith, a Dominion project director, sat quietly in the audience throughout the three-hour meeting, but did answer a couple of questions when pressed by other audience members.
"Dominion has not made a decision to build a new plant," Smith said at the meeting. Addressing a concern that Dominion might not stop at three reactors on Lake Anna, he said, "We have no plans at this time for a fourth reactor."
What Dominion does have, at this time, is an early site permit application that is under review by NRC. If that application is approved, Dominion could then begin construction preparation work. With approval, Dominion would be able to reserve the site for 20 years, leaving open the option to build a third reactor. According to the NRC website, there are four nuclear reactors operating in Virginia. Two of those are at Lake Anna, 30 miles from Charlottesville.
On October 25, a day after the meeting, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) reissued a variance to Dominion that allows the utility to continue discharging water used to cool the two existing nuclear reactors into Lake Anna. The variance was reissued despite locals’ concerns that the rising temperatures in Lake Anna are negatively affecting the watershed’s ecology. Dominion has maintained that there is no danger to aquatic life or the general public.
Discharged water flows through a series of cooling lagoons before emptying into Lake Anna proper. A debate continues whether these lagoons should fall under the federal Clear Water Act, which caps water temperatures at 90 degrees. Dominion and VDEQ argue that the lagoons are private and aren’t considered surface waters of the United States. Because they aren’t considered surface waters, the lagoons aren’t regulated by the Clean Water Act, despite the fact that the lagoons are open to the public and are popular spots for fishing and boating.
"No one has ever declared that these are not surface waters of the United States," says Elena Day of the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy. "The Attorney General of Virginia has come in on the side of Dominion and said they can heat the water up to whatever temperature they want because it is a private waste heat treatment facility. Well, is that the right of Virginia to say so, or is that a federal right?"
At the meeting, UVA physics professor and resident Donal Day said that he is concerned about what he called the "renaissance" of nuclear power. He questioned the application process of the combination permit, likening it to giving a 16-year-old a driver’s license without teaching him or her how to drive. "Where," he asked NRC staff members, "is the best point to focus my attention to derail this?"
A common concern voiced at the meeting, and one that Dr. Day echoed, was NRC’s trustworthiness. Resident Barbara Crawford brought up NRC’s role in the 2002 failure of an emergency coolant system at the Davis-Bessie reactor in Ohio. Chuck Ogle of NRC responded that NRC had learned from Davis-Bessie and is better for it.
Not all the questions were accusatory—some where downright neighborly. Easily half of the audience members that were left after two and a half hours sported stickers saying "Nuclear Energy YES!" and "Because we care about the air."
One man stood up to ask if the NRC takes into account the jobs created when conducting its environmental impact study—pointing out that the plants create a good number of jobs. Why, in fact it does, said a NRC official.
Lisa Stiles, who identified herself as a nuclear engineer and spoke favorably of a new reactor at the meeting, said after the meeting that the waste created by nuclear reactors is "hardly a deciding factor."
"We need to evaluate all options with the same criteria," she said. "We need to have a diverse energy portfolio." Stiles said that she is also a member of the International Youth Nuclear Congress and of North American Young Generation in Nuclear.
Stiles is also a former Dominion employee who used to work at its nuclear plant in Surry County, Virginia. The American Nuclear Society’s website identifies her as the Project Leader of Strategic Staffing and Knowledge Management for the unclear business unit of Dominion Generation. According to the website, she worked as a lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute from 2005 to 2007.
If Dominion’s combination permit is approved, the next public meeting will be in February.
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