Terror Concerns Complicate Rare Request to Expand
Washington Post, Michelle Boorstein
Published March 20, 2005
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the North Anna nuclear power plant, 80 miles south of Washington, meets post-Sept. 11 safety standards. That's not enough for Tommy Barlow.
"It seems as though it doesn't take anybody too smart to get a hold of a shoulder-mounted missile, with the means terrorists seem to be able to come up with," said Barlow, chairman of the planning commission in Louisa County, home to North Anna. "I definitely think it's an issue."
Dominion's nuclear plant has attracted more public attention recently than it has in decades as the power company applies to add two reactors to the two already there.
The application is one of only three in the country making its way through the federal system, the first requests for new nuclear reactors in the 25 years after the industry was rocked by an accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
In the past, routine North Anna events such as Dominion's annual "State of the Station" presentation or the company's request for a license renewal have drawn crowds that could be counted on one hand.
But last month, an NRC hearing in the town of Mineral on the proposed expansion drew 200 to 300 people, most of them -- by a show of hands -- in opposition.
Comments ranged from concern about the consequences for the environment and property values to support for the Bush administration's plan to significantly boost nuclear power, adding the equivalent of 50 reactors to the country's 103 by 2020. But activists say most common these days are concerns about terrorism and security.
"Al Qaeda has said they want to attack a nuclear power plant, and this is a sitting radioactive bomb," said Jerry Rosenthal, 56, a farmer and financial consultant who has been in the anti-nuclear movement in Louisa for nearly 30 years.
Security concerns have been heightened at plants across the country as underwater pools designed to hold nuclear waste have been filling up and utilities have been putting additional waste in aboveground casks that look like small silos.
Although the NRC and Dominion say the concrete and stainless steel casks are secure, even such middle-of-the-road Dominion supporters as Barlow have concerns.
In a 7 to 0 vote last month, the planning commission recommended that if Dominion wants an extension of its permit to keep 22 casks outside and permission to build dozens more, it should be required to build a berm "so that somebody can't get a direct line of sight and fire a missile directly at it," Barlow said.
Tomorrow, the commission's recommendations will go before the Louisa supervisors, and Dominion plans to oppose them, according to the company's nuclear affairs spokesman, Richard Zuercher.
"I'm not going to go into what we'll discuss, but we are in compliance with the NRC," he said, adding that the company has invested three times since the 2001 terrorist attacks in additional security measures required by the regulatory agency.
Tomorrow's vote in Louisa, a community largely reliant on recreation revenue from Lake Anna, the 13,000-acre lake created for the plant, is part of the local look at a very current national question: Where is U.S. nuclear waste going to go?
First-generation nuclear power plants were built without aboveground, outdoor storage because the federal government had promised to be responsible for the radioactive waste. But the government broke its promise long ago and spent more than $6 billion looking for a place to bury the waste.
The deadline to begin burying at Yucca Mountain in Nevada passed in 1998, and early estimates say that the facility is at least a decade away from opening. Environmental groups, including the Washington-based Environmental Working Group, say that even if Yucca opens, it will fill quickly because of waste already generated.
This month, Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) began floating a proposal to have the federal government take ownership of all storage facilities across the country, eliminating liability for states and utilities and also keeping the massive storage debate out of his state.
The belief that Yucca will never be built is the reason Barlow said the berm is needed.
"I don't think anyone is fooling themselves into thinking the waste is ever going anywhere," he said.
As the storage question and U.S. energy policy have become topics of greater interest, Washington area groups for and against nuclear power have poured more effort into North Anna.
The North American Young Generation in Nuclear, made up of professionals in the nuclear industry, has recently opened a Washington area chapter. The People's Alliance for Clean Energy, a Charlottesville-based group opposed to the North Anna expansion, sprang up last year.
Most of the opposition has come from outside Louisa, where Dominion is the largest employer, with 900 jobs at the plant, which provides $10 million annually in tax revenue.
Some residents, however, are questioning the impact of expansion on the lake -- water tables, water levels, water temperature and fish -- and on the recreation economy.
Supervisors in nearby Spotsylvania County issued a group statement last month saying they were displeased with the NRC review of the proposed expansion, which they said didn't consider the burgeoning region's future water needs.
In addition, Supervisor Emmitt Marshall (I-Berkeley), whose district includes part of Lake Anna, asked: "What happens if a suicide bomber decides to drop a bomb on it or crash a plane into it? The larger the plant, the more likely it is you have an accident."
But those concerned about terrorism say storage and expansion issues aren't entirely local. Along with the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Calvert County, Md., North Anna is the closest nuclear facility to Washington. Federal emergency guidelines talk about dangers extending as far as 50 miles.
"They should hold hearings in Washington and Alexandria and Fredericksburg," said Elena Day, a member of the People's Alliance. "Radiation doesn't stop at the county line."
