Spent-fuel storage 'secure'

What is Dominion power doing to protect tons of highly radioactive spent fuel at North Anna nuclear plant?

By RUSTY DENNEN

Date published: 4/16/2005

By RUSTY DENNEN Questions raised about nuke safety

More than 900 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel sits in a swimming-pool-like enclosure and in 22 giant steel casks at North Anna Power Station.

A byproduct of nuclear fission at North Anna's two nearby reactors, used fuel is--by far--the most potentially dangerous material at the Louisa County plant in Fredericksburg's back yard. It remains deadly for thousands of years.

How well it is protected in a post-9/11 world, and the prospect of much more of it piling up here and at the nation's 103 commercial power reactors, has come into sharp focus in recent weeks as two government reports have raised questions about its storage and protection.

It has become an issue locally because Dominion power--owner of the North Anna plant--has an application to add up to two more reactors wending its way through the regulatory process. More reactors would mean the storage of many more tons of spent fuel.

Earlier this month the National Academy of Sciences recommended a plant-by-plant review of the storage pools at nuclear plants, suggesting that they may be vulnerable to terrorist attack.

On Monday, the Government Accountability Office found that some utilities have not kept close enough track of spent fuel.

The GAO report questioned oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and said the materials "could be diverted or stolen and used maliciously."

The report was requested last year by Vermont's two senators following news that spent fuel had been reported missing at the Vermont Yankee plant. It was later found in the spent-fuel pool, but not where records said it was supposed to be.

Spent fuel also was reported missing from the Millstone nuclear plant in Connecticut in 2000 and from the Humboldt Bay plant in California last year. Millstone is owned by Dominion power, which has accounted for all the spent fuel at its North Anna and Surry plants in Virginia.

"These facilities are very secure," said Richard Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion's nuclear operations. He said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "already did an assessment of individual [plant] sites and made recommendations for everybody to implement, and we are in full compliance with those orders."

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Date published: 4/16/2005