Will they or Won't They?

Just a quick follow up to Dominion Power's plans for a third reactor at North Anna. Greg Edwards at the Richmond Times Dispatch wrote two articles over the weekend.

Saturday's piece is a good overview of the environmental concerns already mentioned here in this blog. Specifically, by Friends of Lake Anna. Here is an excerpt and link:

Photo by Richmond Times Dispatch

Harry Ruth of Friends of Lake Anna says something is just not right at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in Richmond. A department spokesman disagrees. Ruth cited a DEQ superior's recall of a letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency by a lower-level state official. The Oct. 2 letter from Ellie Irons, a DEQ program manager, had sought answers to residents' questions. Ruth said his 2,650-member group is neither anti-nuclear nor against an additional reactor but has health and safety concerns about expansion plans at the North Anna Power Station. The group's questions involve the application of the Clean Water Act to three lagoons used to cool reactor water before it is released back into Lake Anna. They also deal with the extent of discretion allowed the state under federal law in regulating the lagoons.

The second piece highlights the fact that even though Dominion will spend millions on the permitting process, it still hasn't officially said it really plans to build a third reactor. Some say why be so coy?

The company has repeatedly said it is going through the expensive permitting process for a new reactor without a commitment to building it because it wants to keep alive its option to build the reactor. The cost of permitting,though in the millions, is only a fraction of what a mistaken decision to build the plant could cost, company officials say.

Michael Town is the state director for the Sierra Club:

If they definitely think there is a good possibility they will [build], they need to be talking about it in those terms," he said. Considering the time and money already spent, Dominion Virginia Power obviously has some plans for a new reactor at North Anna despite the company's repeated protestations that it has not yet decided to build a reactor, Town said. Town fears that if the public thinks the company is not going to build a plant, people will not get involved.For that reason, he said, the utility needs to be very frank about its true intentions.

Again, I've already confessed to being conflicted on this one. But in this world of saying one thing when you actually mean the opposite, it would be nice to know that if Dominion plans to build a third reactor they'd just say so.

Maybe that's just too naive.