NRC schedules meeting at North Anna
Published: September 21, 2011
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled a public meeting
early next month at the North Anna nuclear power station to discuss
the preliminary results of an inspection that reviewed the effects of
the Aug. 23 earthquake and the plant’s response.
The meeting is scheduled for Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. at the North Anna
Nuclear Information Center in Mineral.
The meeting will include members of the NRC inspection team as well as
managers from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., and the agency’s
regional office in Atlanta.
After the results are presented to Dominion Virginia Power, the
plant’s operator, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from
the public.
An inspection team is expected to release its final report later in October.
North Anna’s Units 1 and 2 automatically shut down when a
magnitude-5.8 earthquake occurred about 11 miles from the power
station. No U.S. nuclear power plant had been tripped offline by an
earthquake before, the NRC said.
The station remains shut down, and NRC regulations require that the
station not restart until the company can demonstrate that no
functional damage occurred to features needed for safe operation.
Dominion Virginia Power has asked the NRC for permission to restart
the two nuclear reactors as soon as it completes a series of 18
inspections, tests, and procedure and equipment modifications. The
utility anticipates it will finish those actions by the end of the
month.
Peter Bacqué
Glen Besa, Director
Sierra Club-Virginia Chapter
422 E. Franklin St, Suite 302
Richmond, VA 23219
glen.besa@sierraclub.org
