Two environmental groups object to third North Anna reactor

BY GREG EDWARDS
Media General News Service
Published: May 20, 2008

Environmental groups object to North Anna reactor@biz@

Nuclear

Two environmental groups have asked to intervene in Dominion Virginia Power’s license application to build and operate a third reactor at its Louisa County nuclear plant.

In a petition to federal regulators, the groups outlined eight problems they have with a proposed reactor at the North Anna Power Station. They relate to water use, radioactive waste and emissions, and a geologic fault at the site.

Water use and the cooling system at the plant are what the public should be most concerned about, said Louis Zeller of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. The plant already has a problem with the discharge of heated water into Lake Anna, he said, pointing to an ongoing court challenge to permits from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Water-use issues were raised by the state and some local residents during an earlier site-permitting process, Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Rick Zuercher said. His company addressed them by agreeing to build a cooling system that would not put more hot water into Lake Anna.

“The changes were not good enough,“ Zeller said. “There should not be a third unit.“

Zeller’s group was joined by its Charlottesville-area chapter, People’s Alliance for Clean Energy, and eight central Virginia residents in filing the petition. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent the petition to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.

The board will appoint a three-judge panel to look into the groups’ concerns, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The panel first will decide whether the groups have legal standing and, if so, whether their contentions have merit, he said.

Zeller said he expects the board to begin holding hearings on the groups’ concerns this summer.

“There is a well-established process for determining what issues will be addressed and we are going to participate in that process,“ Dominion’s Zuercher said.

The federal commission approved a reactor site at the North Anna plant last November and soon afterward the utility filed an application for a construction and operating permit under a streamlined permitting process developed by the NRC.

Concerns about a third reactor that make it past an initial screening will go to a full hearing probably in late 2010 to early 2011, Hannah said. The schedule that the NRC has set for itself in handling the North Anna license application calls for a final decision on the third reactor in early- to mid-2011.

Contact Greg Edwards at (804) 649-6390 or .