Familiar faces at nuke open house

New format intended to draw visitors

Friday, April 10, 2009

The approach is one being implemented for outreach regarding plants where public interest has been historically relatively low in an attempt to communicate more effectively with visitors, according to Glenn Dentel, chief of division of reactor projects for the area including Calvert Cliffs.

"We've looked at the process and as an organization we're always looking at ways to improve," Dentel said.

The open house, held Tuesday, April 7, at the Holiday Inn Express in Prince Frederick, drew members of the Calvert County League of Women Voters as well as reactor opponents who came in for one-on-one conversations with representatives of NRC and of Constellation Energy, the company that owns the Lusby plant.

Among other topics, officials addressed a recent "white finding" at the plant, indicating a matter of "low to moderate safety significance," in emergency preparedness procedures. The finding, the first since 2006, has triggered a year of additional federal oversight.

"They made one change they didn't properly evaluate. Did they make others?" Dentel said, explaining one of the reasons for the additional inspections.

While the open house was intended to provide information about the current plant, several visitors asked questions about a proposal to site a third reactor there.

"Has it been tested yet? It hasn't been processed yet in France," League of Women Voters Vice President Roberta Safer asked of the new reactor design, termed an Evolutionary Power Reactor or EPR in the United States. "… We heard they were being built. How do we know anything about them until they are actually functioning?"

Jay Gaines, director of licensing for Constellation, offered reassurances about the safety of the plant and its waste.

"It's the same waste as with the current technology because it's the same technology," he told Safer.

Julia Clark, a woman who says she lives within the 10-mile radius of the plant and has spoken against the third reactor at public hearings, had questions about the specifics of the third reactor but said the presentation would not change her view of nuclear power.

"It's not going to persuade me that there needs to be a third reactor. We're here asking questions and I hope all my questions can be answered. I hope that there are people here that can address all our questions we have," she said.

Clark criticized the lack of structure in this year's presentation.

"I don't see where it's benefiting anyone and I think something of this magnitude and level of importance calls for formality," she said.

Confusion surrounded the time and location of the open house, and Safer and two other LWV representatives originally traveled to Solomons, following an incorrect notice printed in The Washington Post, before making their way back to Prince Frederick.

A county commissioner also announced the wrong location for the meeting, and one NRC representative sent out last year's press release by mistake.

"We're going to try to figure out what happened," Dentel told an angry LWV officer.

emitrano@somdnews.com