Hi Theresa, I was very happy to see you slideshow, and that you included the video from 2011 about the earthquake. it must be very relieving for the surrounding neighbourhoods as for the company itself that their construction of the power plant withstanded the earthquake that well. I was thinking about though, do you have any knowledge about the heated reservoirs south of the power plant? How much do they influence this part of the lake, regarding temperature and biodiversity?
Hi Nikolai! The earthquake was crazy, I was in a building and the bookcase I was standing next to started swaying back and forth. I found some more information about the heated reservoirs. They are completely separate of the lake until the final one, they are divided with an earthen and rock dike keeping the water separated until the final hot lake. There is a submerged pipe through the dike in the 3rd lake that allows the cool water to mix back into Lake Anna. The hot lakes were built specifically to cool the waters before going back into Lake Anna. In 2009 there was some uproar about the temperature of this water, it had spiked to 100 degrees F and a judge ruled Dominion had to abide by the CWA rules and thermal pollution. Up until that point, the hot lakes weren't considered protected under the CWA because of their specific use for the Nuclear power plant. I'm going to keep looking to see what came of this 2009 court ruling. By the way, Lake Anna has received approval to build a 3rd reactor on site in the near future.
Theresa, my sister and her husband have a house on Lake Anna. I have been to the dam (by boat), but didn't even know there was a nuclear power plant on the lake, much less that it supplied 21% of Virginia's electricity! It was very interesting to learn that the plant wasn't built to withstand such a powerful earthquake as the one centered in Mineral, but also reassuring to know that they had so many safety and assessment procedures in place already.
Hi Theresa,
ReplyDeleteI was very happy to see you slideshow, and that you included the video from 2011 about the earthquake. it must be very relieving for the surrounding neighbourhoods as for the company itself that their construction of the power plant withstanded the earthquake that well. I was thinking about though, do you have any knowledge about the heated reservoirs south of the power plant? How much do they influence this part of the lake, regarding temperature and biodiversity?
Hi Nikolai! The earthquake was crazy, I was in a building and the bookcase I was standing next to started swaying back and forth. I found some more information about the heated reservoirs. They are completely separate of the lake until the final one, they are divided with an earthen and rock dike keeping the water separated until the final hot lake. There is a submerged pipe through the dike in the 3rd lake that allows the cool water to mix back into Lake Anna. The hot lakes were built specifically to cool the waters before going back into Lake Anna. In 2009 there was some uproar about the temperature of this water, it had spiked to 100 degrees F and a judge ruled Dominion had to abide by the CWA rules and thermal pollution. Up until that point, the hot lakes weren't considered protected under the CWA because of their specific use for the Nuclear power plant. I'm going to keep looking to see what came of this 2009 court ruling. By the way, Lake Anna has received approval to build a 3rd reactor on site in the near future.
DeleteTheresa, my sister and her husband have a house on Lake Anna. I have been to the dam (by boat), but didn't even know there was a nuclear power plant on the lake, much less that it supplied 21% of Virginia's electricity! It was very interesting to learn that the plant wasn't built to withstand such a powerful earthquake as the one centered in Mineral, but also reassuring to know that they had so many safety and assessment procedures in place already.
ReplyDelete