At 2pm this afternoon, activists from Blue Ridge Earth First, Rising Tide North America, and Nuclear Watch South staged a non-violent protest in Dominion Resource’s North Anna nuclear power visitor center in Mineral.
The protest, inspired by the ideology and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is intended as a demand to stop planned construction of a third reactor at the North Anna power station in Lake Anna.
“Fifteen people are involved and they are definitely in the visitor center,” says Mary Olson with Nuclear Watch South. “They are going to be there for a while, at least until 4pm when the center closes.” Dominion Resource, Olson says, has decided to stand back and not do anything. “It’s the ‘hope it goes away’ attitude,” she says. Dominion Resource could not immediately be reached for comment at the time of this posting.
As C-VILLE previously reported, opposition arose when the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a permit for the utility company to start clearing the land and prep the area where the reactor will be built.
In an earlier article, C-VILLE also reported that the Sierra Club and other environmental groups warned of possible legal actions against the issuance of the building permit, and the decision of the State Water Control Board to renew another permit that allows the North Anna power station to discharge water into Lake Anna at a higher temperature than the 90-degree maximum allowed by the federal Clean Water Act. Indeed, on April 28, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League filed a legal motion with the U.S. Regulatory Commission to postpone deadlines for the North Anna power station construction and operating license.
The North Anna power plant has recently been at the center of major disputes between environmental groups and the U.S. Regulatory Commission.