Nuclear Plant Restarting

Nov 12 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rusty Dennen The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Eighty-one days after Virginia's second-largest earthquake shut down North Anna Power Station's two nuclear reactors, they are going back online.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Dominion the OK yesterday to restart the plant after more than two months of inspections in the wake of the magnitude-5.8 earthquake centered in Louisa County, about 12 miles from the plant.

"The earthquake shook the reactors more strongly than the plant's design anticipated, so Dominion had to prove to us that the quake caused no functional damage to the reactors' safety systems," Eric Leeds, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a news release.

The agency and the company, in separate reviews, concluded that there was no significant damage to any of the nuclear plant's safety systems or equipment.

The NRC sent in an "augmented inspection team" with a seismic expert and other technicians shortly after the quake, and held a restart readiness inspection in mid-October. The company inspected, among other things, electrical systems, piping, pumps and valves, and reactor fuel.

The NRC yesterday asked Dominion to take several additional quake-related actions, including:

Updating North Anna's final safety analysis report to include information from the quake and subsequent analysis.

More analysis of the fault responsible for the earthquake, as well as any special ground-motion impacts at the plant.

Re-evaluating plant equipment, including an assessment of potential improvements, identified in earlier seismic reviews. That is because the ground motion from the quake briefly exceeded the limit for which the plant was designed.

Developing any needed inspections or evaluations for components within the reactor vessels -- the steel cocoons enclosing the reactors.

Updating seismic monitoring equipment for the reactors and the dry casks that contain highly radioactive spent fuel. One seismic monitor in the control room briefly lost power during the quake, which automatically shut down both reactors.

Plant operators will bring Unit 1 online first, then Unit 2, which was refueled during the outage.

The company said it will take about 10 days to return both units to full power. That process normally takes about four days, but because the units will be starting up after the first earthquake to shut down a U.S. nuclear power plant, the process will take longer. Additional equipment tests must be done when the units are in various stages of startup.

Dominion said it increased staffing in operations, maintenance, health physics and other departments for the restart. The company cautioned that the process could be delayed if operators decide that additional checks or maintenance is required.

"As always, safety is our first priority," said David A. Heacock, president and chief nuclear officer for Dominion Nuclear. "We have demonstrated to ourselves and to the NRC and are confident that North Anna is safe and ready to be restarted."

Beyond Nuclear, the Louisa-based Not on Our Fault Line and the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club last month asked the NRC to block a restart pending a re-licensing process focusing on seismic risks; analysis of the earthquake vulnerability of the dam on Lake Anna, which provides the plant with cooling water; and re-examination of safety and compliance issues for spent-fuel storage casks, which shifted slightly during the quake.

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431

Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com