RTD: North Anna Nuclear Generating Station shut down due to water leak

Robert Zullo of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: "North Anna nuclear reactor in Louisa County shuts down after water leak." 11 December 2017. 

Dominion Energy shut down one of two reactors at the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station yesterday after what it described as a small water leak. A representative for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that on-site inspectors will be overseeing the issue, and that at this time the agency sees no need for a special inspection.

This is probably not a substantial issue, but considering the current struggle against Dominion in regards to their planned 613 mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, I thought it was salient to remind everybody of some significant facts regarding the North Anna station. Namely: during construction in the 1970s, Dominion discovered a seismic fault line at the site of the plant, which substantially increased risk of earthquake damage. In 1977, the state fined the utility $32,500 for attempting to obscure the fact of the fault line. As of 2010, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimated that the site's annual risk of experiencing an earthquake powerful enough to cause core damage was approximately 1 in 23,000: by contrast, the annual odds of being struck by lightning in the U.S. is about 1 in 700,000, according to National Geographic. IE, the risk is greater than that of a stereotypically rare but plausible scenario. In 2011, tremors from the a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in nearby Mineral tripped emergency sensors and caused both reactors to go offline. The quake also cracked some buildings on the site, and shifted stored spent nuclear fuel.

Why bring this up in the context of the ACP? Mostly because the case of the Lake Anna facility demonstrates that Dominion has lied about the safety of its infrastructure before, and escaped significant consequences for what should have been considered criminal negligence. We should be skeptical about their safety claims.