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Citizen concern over North Anna nuclear plant, despite fed rating

Posted at 11:38 PM, May 01, 2012
and last updated 2012-05-02 00:15:29-04

LOUISA, Va. (WTVR) - It's been almost nine months since a historic earthquake rattled central Virginia, and the North Anna nuclear power plant.

Some who live near the plant  say they still have concerns.

Tuesday night during a public hearing the government regulators issued their annual safety report on the plant. They got a green rating which means the plant is no danger to the public, but that didn’t convince some citizens who attended the meeting.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was on the hot seat.

“I’m wondering about a report of a  leak that is three times the EPA standards,” said concerned citizen, Chris Dorsey.

The agency did admit there was a leak that made its way into a well, but that it was being monitored and that the contamination is slowly being minimized posing no threat to the public.

“Unbelievable, things have got to change, and rightfully, North Anna rightly should be decommissioned,” said Henrico county resident, Erica Gray.

“Many of the issues brought up were investigated before and after the earthquake,” said Richard Zueker with Dominion Power.

Zueker says many of these residents don’t like nuclear power, and their biggest complaint is the fact that the plant was built on a fault line, but argues the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that fault line is dormant.

“It hasn't moved in tens of thousands of years," he said.