NRC, Dominion to Discuss Post-Earthquake Actions Taken at North Anna

NRC, Dominion to Discuss Post-Earthquake Actions Taken at North Anna Moderator | September 7, 2011 at 10:11 am | Tags: nuclear | Categories: Operating Reactors | URL: http://wp.me/p1fSSY-qR

Following last month’s earthquake in Virginia, everyone’s interested in learning more about the quake’s effects on the nearby North Anna nuclear power plant. The plant’s operator, Dominion, has information to share, so the NRC’s ready to listen.
NRC staff will meet with Dominion management from 1 – 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8, in the Commissioners’ Conference Room on the first floor of the NRC’s One White Flint North building, at 11555 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Md. Having a public meeting on such short notice is very unusual, but Dominion’s information on such a unique situation needs to be discussed in a formal, open setting as soon as possible.
The NRC wants to make sure you have the opportunity to see what’s been learned, so the meeting will be available on the Live NRC Meeting page. Members of the public can attend the meeting by coming through security at the NRC’s One White Flint North entrance, at the corner of Rockville Pike and Marinelli Road in Rockville. The NRC is across the street from the White Flint Metro stop.
Dominion is expected to discuss its latest analysis of ground motion at the North Anna site, which sits about 12 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter in Louisa, Va. The company is also expected to describe its next steps in determining whether the plant meets NRC requirements to restart.
The two-reactor North Anna plant shut down safely following the quake, with both reactors operating as designed. Ongoing analysis by both the NRC and Dominion indicates the earthquake may have subjected the plant to more ground movement than specified in the plants’ designs. An NRC Augmented Inspection Team has been examining North Anna for the past week and the team plans to continue its work for another week. When the team completes its inspection, the NRC will hold a meeting near North Anna to discuss their preliminary results, and a final report is expected by the middle of October.

Scott Burnell

Public Affairs Officer