Nuclear safety generates debate
As the United States fights for independence from fossil fuels, the safety of nuclear energy debate continues. In Virginia, the proposed addition of a third reactor at the North Anna Power Station is fueling the debate locally.
There are two nuclear facilities in Virginia ? North Anna in Louisa County and Surry Power Station located in Surry County.
As the United States fights for independence from fossil fuels, the safety of nuclear energy debate continues. In Virginia, the proposed addition of a third reactor at the North Anna Power Station is fueling the debate locally.
There are two nuclear facilities in Virginia ? North Anna in Louisa County and Surry Power Station located in Surry County.
Nuclear power is not a new technology, and has been in use in Virginia since the early 70s. According to Dominion Power’s Web site, the two facility’s four reactors generate 3,384 megawatts of electricity ? enough to power 850,000 homes.
Many groups oppose the use of nuclear facilities to generate power, citing both environmental and safety concerns.
Louis Zeller, science director for Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, said that aside from the toll these facilities take on the environment, public safety weighs against nuclear power.
“There’s a certain amount of radioactivity going into the air, even without an accident,” Zeller said. There’s no safe level of radiation, that radiation still has an impact. This stuff can go for quite a long distance, if the wind is blowing strong it goes that much further downwind.”
Despite Virginia’s lack of a significant nuclear accident, opponents of nuclear power still contest that the facilities still pose a threat to the well being of the communities around them.
Leonard Smock, director of VCU’s Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences stated that in the case of the North Anna facility in Louisa County, many people forget why Lake Anna even exists.
“A perspective that is often lost over time, is that Lake Anna was built by the power company with with the express purpose of using the reservoir to cool its generators in the production of power,” stated Smock in an e-mail. “If it were not for that need and funding source, the reservoir would not exist.”
Projected demand for electricity is an issue Dominion Power plans to address with alternative energy sources such as nuclear power.
Dominion spokesman Richard Zuercher said there is an estimated energy gap in Virginia that needs to be addressed by 2018, which will be filled in part by the addition of a third reactor at North Anna.
