In Search of Energy, A Virginia Town Ponders a Third Nuclear Plant

The two nuclear reactors at the North Anna power plant.

This has created two problems. On the lake's warm side, which receives the plant's discharge, the summer water temperature already can reach above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Even in the cooler months, in February and March, the water stays warm. Boaters bundled up in heavy jackets and caps often see people playing in the water in swimsuits. The second problem is the water level. Between the region's ongoing drought and the reactors' thirst for water, lake levels in some recent summers have fallen several feet, in some places exposing stumps or rocks that endanger boats.

A third reactor would strain the lake further, which has become a sore point between Dominion and lake residents. A 2003 Dominion report suggested that water temperatures near the reactor might rise as high as 113 degrees in the summer with three reactors operating. "That shocked a lot of people," says Doug Smith, a retired government worker who owns a farm in Louisa County and a boathouse on Lake Anna. In response, Dominion spent several months designing an alternative system to release water into the air rather than back into the lake. It's still working to address water-level issues.

Such delays are costly, and cost is one of the main reasons the nuclear industry has struggled—and continues to struggle—in the United States. Industry insiders estimate that it will cost $6 billion to build the third reactor, assuming everything goes according to plan. Work on the project began in 2000, and Dominion has spent the past five years doing safety and environmental reviews. Construction will take at least five years, and each year of delay could add at least $1 billion, maybe more, to the final bill. It's that estimated price tag, above all, that will determine whether Dominion's board of directors ultimately decides to give the reactor the go-ahead.

Some of the other major flash points about nuclear energy that tend to dominate the political debate—where to store nuclear waste, how to safeguard power plants from terrorist attacks—have figured less prominently here, although they're not entirely absent. Like most companies, Dominion stores its spent nuclear fuel on-site, in off-white-colored casks in a secured area. The casks don't take up much space, but they do cause consternation, especially among environmentalists. "Dominion has gotten its way here for more than five decades now," says Lou Zeller, president of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense league, a regional antinuclear organization.

Zeller's group is currently involved in a separate legal dispute with Dominion over the company's plans for disposing of "low-level waste" like workers' clothing that contains smaller amounts of radiation. Dominion used to send that material to a storage location in South Carolina, but that site, as of this past summer, no longer accepts it. So Dominion will most likely have to store that on-site, too.

Though concerns about nuclear waste were raised last spring at a public hearing at Louisa County High School, many residents who attended say such objections came primarily from outsiders—"people from Washington and Charlottesville with agendas to push," says Bill Murphey, a lakeside resident. They do, however, expect their community to experience other impacts. They say they'll need more schools, roads, and homes to accommodate workers and their families during the lengthy construction process.

Some locals, noting that the schools here are already overcrowded, fear the county hasn't done enough to prepare should the reactor get built on schedule. On the other hand, given that a new reactor hasn't been approved since 1978, it could still be many years, if ever, before construction begins. l

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