Two days before Thanksgiving, Dominion Power got to add an early site permit to its list of things to be thankful for. Issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the permit doesn’t mean the utility company can start building a third nuclear reactor at its North Anna power station on Lake Anna, a reactor that Dominion has been working to get approved for more than four years. But the permit will allow the company to clear land and prepare the site in hopes that the final necessary license is granted.
 Charlottesville is a mere 30 miles from the North Anna power station. |
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"We’re disappointed, certainly," says John Cruickshank, representing the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club. "We’ve been opposed for at least three years to the construction of a third reactor at North Anna. We think that nuclear power may be necessary in the short run, just to maintain the production of electricity at current levels, but in the long run, nuclear power is not the best solution to our energy needs. We think that there should be a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear reactors, as well as coal-fired power plants."
The Sierra Club will continue to oppose North Anna’s application for a "combined license," which would allow for actual construction of the new reactor. Dominion argues that the reactor is necessary to provide "safe, reliable nuclear energy" that "can produce a significant amount of electricity with no greenhouse gas emissions," according to a press release. [For more on the "green" marketing of the nuclear industry, go to c-ville.com to see C-VILLE’s 2006 cover story, "The greening of nuclear power."]
Dominion filed its early site permit application in September 2003. Energy companies across the country have expressed interests in nuclear power, particularly since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave tax breaks and loan guarantees for the energy source. The NRC is expecting 32 applications for new reactors in the next several years. The agency has already issued early site permits for new reactors in Illinois and Mississippi.
The Sierra Club is not alone in opposing the North Anna expansion. According to Cruickshank, the People’s Alliance for Clean Energy and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League are organizing an appeal of an October 25 decision by the state Department of Environmental Quality to allow Dominion to continue discharging warm water into Lake Anna.
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